CHOY     SUSAN 


OTHER   STORIES 


WILLIAA    HENRY    BISHOP 


DETMOLD:  A  ROMANCE.   "  Little  Classic"  style.   iSmo  $1.25 
THE  HOUSE  OF  A  MERCHANT  PRINCE.    A  Novel 

of  New  York.     i2mo i-5° 

CHOY  SUSAN,  AND  OTHER  STORIES.     i6mo .    .    .    1.25 

HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  &  CO.,  PUBLISHERS, 

BOSTON. 


CHOY   SUSAN 


AND 


OTHER  STORIES 


BY 


WILLIAM   HENRY  BISHOP 

AUTHOR  OF  "DETMOLD,"  "THE  HOUSE  OF  A  MERCHANT  PRINCE,' 
"OLD  MEXICO  AND  HER  LOST  PROVINCES,"  ETC. 


BOSTON 

HOUGHTON,   MIFFLIN    AND    COMPANY 
New  York:    11    East  Seventeenth   Street 

Camfcribge 

1885 


Copyright,  1884, 
BY  WILLIAM   HENRY  BISHOP. 

All  rights  reserved. 


The  Riverside  Press,  Cambridge : 
Electrotyped  and  Printed  by  H.  0.  Houghton  &  Co. 


96  / 

Bl  2. 


CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

CHOY  SUSAN 1 

THE  BATTLE  OF  BUNKEBLOO 59 

DEODAND 94 

BRAXTON'S  NEW  ART 150 

ONE  OF  THE  THIRTY  PIECES 193 

MclNTYRE's  FALSE  FACE       241 

Miss  CALDERON'S  GERMAN 296 


CHOY   SUSAN. 


I. 

THE  ADVENT   OF  TEN   MOON. 

LESTER  BALDWIN,  storekeeper,  in  a  tent, 
down  at  Sloan's  Camp,  arrived  one  morning  at 
a  Chinese  fishing-village  on  the  shore  of  the 
wide  Pacific  Ocean,  in  search  of  a  few  more 
railroad  hands. 

Instead  of  inquiring  for  the  "  bossee  man  "  of 
the  village  in  the  usual  way,  it  was,  strangely 
enough,  a  woman,  Choy  Susan,  to  whom  he 
directed  himself.  Choy  Susan  enjoyed  in  the 
Celestial  community  —  partly  through  innate 
force  of  character,  and  partly  because  she  had 
mastered  the  English  tongue,  and  thus  made 
herself  invaluable  in  business  dealings  with  the 
outside  world  —  a  position  quite  unusual  with 
her  sex. 

Choy  Susan  was  not  at  home.  Nor,  for  the 
moment,  was  her  partner,  Yuen  Wa,  a  super 
annuated  little  old  man,  employed  to  tend  shop 


2  CHOY  SUSAN. 

for  her  during  her  frequent  absences,  which 
often  included  even  bold  adventures  to  the 
fishing-grounds. 

The  storekeeper,  as  he  stood  knocking  at 
the  door,  was  a  long,  lank  figure,  "  sandy-com 
plected,"  as  he  himself  would  have  said,  with  a 
sandy  "  goatee,"  a  cast  in  one  eye,  and  a  chronic 
huskiness  of  voice.  To  his  friends  he  was  not 
Lester,  but  "Yank,"  or  Yankee,  Baldwin. 

A  large  Chinese  parrot,  the  morose  "  Tong," 
hung  in  a  wooden  cage  without,  alone  acknowl 
edged  his  presence  and  delivered  in  response 
to  his  knock  a  torrent  of  jargon,  undoubtedly 
abuse,  in  the  vernacular. 

"  Quack-a-lee  !  cack-a-lee-lee-ee  !  whoo-oosh  ! 
You  're  another,"  returned  Yank  Baldwin,  face 
tiously,  by  way  of  reply  in  kind,  and  went  on  to 
continue  his  search. 

The  village  had  a  deserted  look.  Even  some 
doors  which  had  stood  ajar  on  the  storekeeper's 
first  approach  now  churlishly  closed.  There  was 
no  one  at  the  tawdry  little  out-of-doors  theatre, 
no  one  at  the  fane  of  Hop  Wo,  where  an  inscrip 
tion  for  the  benefit  of  strangers  directed :  "  By 
This  Way  Go  up  Stairs  ; "  there  were  no  smooth 
polls  being  scraped  smoother  yet  at  the  barber 
shop.  A  person,  in  the  smoky  little  cabaret, 
with  its  heavy  wooden  tables,  who  was  engaged 
in  preparing  a  dessert  of  hog's  fat  and  sweet- 


CHOY  SUSAN.  3 

meats  for  the  noonday  meal,  answered  shortly, 
"Twel*  o'clock!"  and  could  not  be  induced  to 
add  another  word. 

"  I  'd  like  to  wring  your  neck,"  began  Yank 
Baldwin;  but,  again,  resignedly,  "Oh,  well, 
what 's  the  use  !  " 

He  saw  some  men  at  a  distance,  on  the  beach, 
busied  at  a  smoking  tar-kettle,  apparently  mend 
ing  a  boat.  He  was  betaking  himself  thither, 
and  had  reached  a  point  where  a  grotesque  idol, 
deity  of  fishermen,  squatted  on  a  rock  among 
the  dwellings,  when  he  heard  himself  hailed : 

"  Eh,  one  man  !  "  cried  a  voice,  "  where  you 
go?" 

It  was  Choy  Susan  herself.  She  had  perhaps 
observed  his  quest,  from  some  occupation  in 
which  she  had  been  engaged  in  a  shed  used 
for  general  storage.  She  waddled  towards  him, 
her  ample  form  costumed  in  a  wide  jacket  and 
pantaloons  of  shiny  black  cotton,  men's  gaiters 
on  her  large  feet,  and  a  bunch  of  keys  dangling 
at  her  girdle.  Her  round  full  face  was  plenti 
fully  marked  with  traces  of  small-pox. 

"  Oh,  is  that  you,  Choy  Susan  ?    How  do  ?  " 

"How  do?"  replied  Choy  Susan,  in  a  non 
committal  way. 

"  It 's  a  month  o'  Sundays  sence  I  've  seen 
you,  Susan.  It 's  good  for  weak  eyes  to  set  'em 
on  a  fine,  strappin',  handsome  figger  of  a  woman 
like  you,  agin." 


4  CHOY  SUSAN. 

"  Too  much  dam'  talkee  !  What  want  ?  "  she 
responded,  treating  this  ingratiatory  palaver 
with  contempt. 

"  Well,  then,  we  '11  get  down  to  business 
right  away.  Say  !  I  want  catchee  about  a 
dozen  good  China  boys,  go  down  workee  on 
railroad,  Miller's  division." 

"  No,  can't  catchee  nothin'.  Man  all  gone 
flish.  Bimeby,  some  time,  other  day." 

"  Good  pay !  muchee  eat !  plenty  much  rice  ! " 
said  the  other,  imperturbably,  making  panto 
mime  of  raising  food  to  the  mouth  with  both 
hands.  "  Say  !  I  knew  you  was  the  one  to  git 
'em.  Sez  I,  4  If  Choy  Susan  can't  git  'em  for 
us,  nobody  kin.' ': 

"  Too  much  talkee  !     No,  can't  catchee  noth- 


And  she  made  as  if  about  to  brusquely  con 
clude  the  interview  and  go  back  to  her  affairs. 

"  It 's  probably  Easterby  that  would  want 
'em,"  appealed  the  applicant.  "  You  know 
Easterby.  He  's  a  white  man." 

"Mist'  Easte'by  he  a  daisy,"  returned  the 
Chinawoman.  She  seemed  rather  mollified  at 
this  name,  and  now  gazed  up  the  street  as  if 
more  inclined  to  consider  the  matter.  This 
Easterby  had,  in  fact,  ingratiated  himself  with 
her  of  old  by  some  small  politeness  or  service, 
—  a  pleasant  way  he  had  of  doing. 


CIIOY  SUSAN.  5 

The  village  consisted  of  a  main  thoroughfare 
of  wooden  cabins,  silvered  gray  by  the  weather, 
with  a  motley  cluster,  nearer  the  shore,  of  fish- 
houses,  strangely-fashioned  boats,  and  tackles, 
and  tall  frames  of  poles,  along  which  were 
strung  rows  of  fish  drying  in  the  sun.  All  was 
set  down  amid  rugged  bowlders,  as  silvery-gray 
as  the  houses.  Bright  little  patches  of  color, 
red  and  yellow  papers  inscribed  with  hiero 
glyphics,  a  gay  pennant,  a  tasseled  glass  lan 
tern,  a  carved  and  gilded  sign,  scattered  here 
and  there  through  the  whole,  might  serve,  from 
a  distance,  as  a  reminiscence  of  the  once  vivid 
spring  wild-flowers  of  the  section,  now  vanished 
from  the  brown,  dry  pastures  of  midsummer. 

Just  in  the  edge  of  the  expanse  of  blue  bay 
lay  at  anchor  the  Chinese  junk,  Good  Success 
and  Golden  Profits,  —  to  transcribe  into  prac 
ticable  form  the  mystic  blazonry  of  her  title  — 
come  round  on  her  periodic  trip  from  San  Fran 
cisco,  to  gather  up  the  product  of  the  fishing 
industry  and  bring  a  freight  of  salt  and  empty 
barrels.  She  had  discharged  her  cargo,  and  all 
at  present  was  as  quiet  on  board  her  as  else 
where. 

"  That 's  right  now,"  pursued  Yank  Baldwin, 
following  up  his  advantage.  "  Easterby  's  allers 
said  your  bark  was  worse  than  your  bite." 

Choy  Susan's  bark  was,  in  fact,  worse  than 


CIIOY  SUSAN. 


her  bite.  She  was  plainly  a  person  much  in  the 
habit  of  being  deferred  to ;  and  this,  together 
with  her  need  of  defending  herself  against  scof 
fers,  of  whom  she  had  met  with  not  a  few  among 
the  "  Melican  "  men,  in  a  long  experience,  had 
given  her  a  manner  bluff,  masculine,  and  even 
surly.  But  she  was  amenable  to  kindness,  and 
there  were  even  moments  when,  under  her  un 
smiling  exterior,  she  almost  seemed  to  appre 
ciate  the  humor  of  herself. 

She  prided  herself  on  giving  back  to  scoffers 
as  good  as  they  sent.  She  had  begun  her  Eng 
lish  at  the  Stockton  Street  Mission  in  San  Fran 
cisco,  and  perfected  it  at  the  mines  of  Bodie. 
Now  Bodie  is  a  place  where  it  is  said  that  they 
would  steal  a  red-hot  stove  with  a  fire  in  it,  and 
"  a  bad  man  from  Bodie "  has  passed  into  a 
proverb  for  all  that  is  lawless  and  terrorizing. 
At  this  university  she  had  picked  up  the  choice 
stock  of  slang  so  useful  to  her  in  her  way  of 
life,  together  with  her  hybrid,  half-English 
name,  and  the  independent  methods  of  action 
which  made  her  the  somewhat  awe-inspiring 
figure  that  she  was. 

The  negotiations  for  laborers  had  progressed 
to  the  point  indicated  when  a  prodigious  clat 
tering  of  horse's  hoofs  was  heard.  On  they 
came,  drawing,  every  instant  nearer,  till  the 
sound  increased  to  a  phenomenal  racket. 


CHOY  SUSAN.  1 

"  Ger-eat  guns  !  "  cried  Yank  Baldwin,  clap 
ping  bis  hat  hard  down  upon  his  head  and  run 
ning  around  a  corner  for  the  better  view,  fol 
lowed  in  a  more  leisurely  way  by  Choy  Susan. 

A  cavalier  came  tearing  into  the  settlement, 
like  a  comet,  as  it  were,  run  ashore.  It  was  a 
Chinaman,  mounted  on  a  small  roan  steed,  which 
snorted,  wheezed,  kicked,  and  bolted  in  the  most 
extraordinary  manner.  The  rider's  loose  gar 
ments  ballooned  in  the  wind,  his  eyes  started 
from  his  head  in  terror,  and  at  every  plunge  of 
the  animal  he  bounded  from  the  saddle  high 
into  the  air. 

A  stride  or  two  more,  and  they  were  here ; 
another,  and  they  were  gone  far  up  the  street. 

A  sudden  population,  now  appearing,  — wher 
ever  they  had  been,  —  rushed  forth  and  threw 
themselves  in  the  track,  crying  in  tones  of  ag 
onized  expostulation,  — 

"  Ten  Moon  !     Ten  Moon  !  " 
"  Ten  Moon  !  "  shrieked  the  parrot,  Tong,  at 
Choy  Susan's  door,  in  a  fierce,  goblin-like  mim 
icry  of  these. 

Never,  perhaps,  since  the  days  of  the  "  fiery 
untamed  steed"  of  Mazeppa,  or  since  Roland 
brought  the  good  news  from  Ghent,  had  eques 
trian  arrived  anywhere  in  more  redoubtable 
haste  than  this. 

"  Well,  if  it  ain't  Ten  Moon,  the  cook  o'  the 


CHOY  SUSAN. 

Palace  Boardin'  House,  on  my  pony,  Rattle- 
weed  !  Oho  !  ho  !  ho-o  !  The  boys  has  put  up 
a  job  on  him ! "  cried  Yank  Baldwin,  slapping 
himself  on  the  thigh  with  a  big  coarse  hand. 
"  A  Chinaman  on  horseback !  that  beats  a  Jack 
Tar,  and  they  beat  the  Dutch,"  and  he  doubled 
himself  up  in  convulsions  of  laughter. 

Turning  inadvertently  about,  in  his  delight, 
he  discovered  a  new  figure,  that  of  a  pleasing 
young  woman,  standing  behind  him.  He  re 
ported  at  camp  afterwards  that  he  was  "  dead 
gone  on  "  her  from  the  first  instant  he  saw  her. 
She  had  come  quietly  out  of  the  storage  shed, 
where,  it  seemed,  she  had  been  in  company 
with  Choy  Susan. 

She  was  attired  in  a  brown  merino  dress 
with  a  few  furbelows  on  the  skirt.  At  the  neck 
she  wore  a  wide  linen  collar  of  a  very  fresh 
aspect ;  her  brown  hair  was  neatly  smoothed. 
Her  girlish  face,  of  a  clear  pale  complexion,  had 
the  general  features  rather  small,  though  a  long 
upper  lip  contributed  to  give  a  certain  thought 
ful  cast.  She  wore  a  large  flamboyant  hat,  of 
a  kind  which  might  have  been  in  fashion  on 
the  Eastern  seaboard  some  three  years  before. 
The  knowing  in  such  matters  would  have  de 
tected  in  her  many  traces  of  rusticity,  but  to 
Yank  Baldwin  she  seemed  the  epitome  of  ele 
gant  distinction.  She  was  a  person  far  beyond 


C1IOY  SUSAN.  9 

most  of  those  he  was  in  the  habit  of  seeing  in 
his  way  of  life,  and  he  considered  her  "  high- 
toned,"  or  "tony,"  in  the  extreme.  A  thought 
of  unfaithfulness  to  the  memory  of  a  certain 
Spanish  Luisa,  of  Monterey,  at  once  occurred 
to  him. 

He  drew  a  long  face,  as  not  deeming  his 
merriment  wholly  decorous  before  the  stranger, 
and  threw  out,  by  way  of  overture  at  conversa 
tion,  — 

"  A  pleasant  day  !  " 

"  Yes,  it  is  a  pleasant  day,"  she  returned. 

But  she  gave  him  very  little  heed ;  her  glance 
was  following  with  painful  intensity  instead  the 
flying  form  of  Ten  Moon. 

"  Oh,  he  will  be  hurt ;  he  will  be  killed,  will 
he  not  ?  "  she  cried,  clasping  her  hands  appeal- 
ingly  as  the  rider  disappeared  around  a  turn. 

"  Yes,  I  s'pose  so ;  that  is,  I  hope  so,"  replied 
the  storekeeper  nonchalantly,  taking  it  quite  as 
a  matter  of  course. 

The  trio  were  now  walking  onward  to  witness 
the  adventure,  which  must  certainly  be  near  its 
close,  among  the  narrow  lanes  and  by-ways  of 
the  place ;  Choy  Susan  behind  the  other  two. 

"  You  talk  so  about  a  fellow-being  ? "  said 
the  young  girl,  turning  indignantly  upon  Bald 
win. 

"  Well,  may  be  they  is  feller-bein's.    I  dunno 


10  CHOY  SUSAN. 

but  they  is,"  he  returned,  weakening  under  her 
glance,  and  with  an  apologetic  tone.  "  I  dimno 
's  I  Ve  got  anything  particular  agin  'em,  if  you 
hain't." 

He  apparently  admired  in  her  an  unusual 
spirit  and  originality  of  ideas,  as  well  as  good 
looks. 

"  The  Chinese  has  got  to  go,  though,  I 
s'pose?"  he  suggested  inquiringly. 

"  Well,  that 's  no  reason  for  wanting  them  all 
to  be  fatally  injured  while  they're  here." 

But  a  much  closer  interest  (soon  to  appear) 
than  benevolence  towards  the  race  prompted 
her  solicitude  for  this  representative  of  it. 

"  What  is  the  matter  with  the  pony,  and  why 
do  they  call  him  Rattleweed?"  she  now  con 
descended  to  inquire. 

"They've  got  to  call  him  something,'"  he 
replied,  as  if  this  were  a  complete  and  full 
explanation. 

"  Oh  !  "  she  merely  commented,  taking  him 
in  his  own  way,  as  if  it  were  in  fact  an  explana 
tion.  Before  he  could  add  anything  further,  he 
was  called  away  to  take  part  in  a  curious  melee 
which  now  met  their  eyes  in  front. 

The  eccentric  little  animal,  after  fuming  im 
patiently  through  various  by-ways,  had  been 
checked  by  a  pile  of  rocks  and  fishing  para 
phernalia,  forming  a  cul-de-sac.  This  hud  given 


cno Y  SUSAN.  11 

time  for  assistance  to  come  up.  Some  of  the 
rescuers  had  thrown  their  arms  wildly  about  its 
neck  ;  others  had  seized  Ten  Moon  by  the  legs  ; 
still  others  endeavored,  with  ropes,  sticks,  and 
poles,  to  snare  the  pony  and  throw  him  down. 

Taken  thus  at  a  disadvantage,  Rattleweed  at 
last  succumbed.  With  a  certain  expression  as 
of  duty  accomplished,  he  went  down  amid  great 
clamor,  Ten  Moon  still  in  the  saddle,  and  the 
others  falling  upon  them  in  a  confused  heap. 

All  emerged  from  this,  miraculous  to  say, 
with  but  few  bruises  and  practically  unhurt. 
When  Ten  Moon  had  felt  his  bones  and  found 
none  of  them  broken,  he  began  a  voluble  recital 
of  his  story  to  the  crowd.  The  young  sur 
veyors  down  at  Sloan's  Camp,  he  said,  had 
mounted  him  on  this  never-to-be-sufficiently- 
accursed  beast,  under  pretense  of  kindness,  that 
he  might  the  sooner  get  back  from  his  errand. 
The  audience  expressed,  in  looks  and  shrill  tones 
of  disgust,  their  opinion  of  the  baseness  of  the 
surveyors  aforesaid. 

Choy  Susan,  with  her  air  of  authority,  strode 
forward  and  interrupted  the  narration.  She 
touched  the  speaker  on  the  shoulder,  drew  him 
aside,  and  seemed  to  listen  to  some  kind  of  re 
port  from  him.  Then  she  returned  to  her  com 
panion  and  reported  in  turn  : 

16  Ten  Moon  no  got  answer.     No  could  find 


12  CHOY  SUSAN. 

Mist'  Easte'by.  Easte'by  gone  'way  down  Mil 
ler's  Camp.  They  send  letter  if  he  no  come 
back  light  away,  bimeby,  plitty  click." 

The  young  girl  made  an  effort  at  first  to  re 
press  a  strong  feeling  ;  then  broke  down  with 
a  despairing  cry. 

"Oh,  what  shall  I  do,"  she  said,  "if  he  does 
not  get  my  letter  at  all  ?  " 

The  interpreter  and  autocrat  of  the  Chinese 
village  looked  at  her  in  open  surprise,  followed 
at  once  by  an  expression  of  shrewd  insight. 

"  You  want  to  mally  Mist'  Easte'by  ?  He 
you'  beau  ?  "  she  asked  in  a  bluff,  friendly  way. 

"  Oh,  Choy  Susan,  my  father  wants  to  make 
me  marry  another  man  !  He  has  gone  to  Sole- 
dad  now,  to  bring  him.  When  they  get  back, 
it  will  have  to  be  done.  My  father  is  a  —  a 
minister,  in  our  faith,  and  can  do  it  himself." 

"  How  you  come  stay  here  ?  " 

"  I  got  my  father  to  leave  me  on  pretext  of 
sickness.  I  told  him  I  could  not  travel  any 
farther  in  the  jolting  stage,  and  now  I  don't 
know  what  to  do." 

"  Easte'by  goin'  stop  it  ?  " 

"  It  was  only  by  the  merest  accident  I  knew 
he  was  here,"  she  returned,  embarrassed.  "  I 
saw  his  name  in  a  paper  as  among  the  survey 
ors  at  this  place." 

"  How  you  come  know  he  ?  " 


cnoY  SUSAN.  13 

Choy  Susan  propounded  her  questions  in  a 
dry,  almost  inquisitorial  way. 

"  I  used  to  know  him  when  he  was  survey 
ing  down  at  Lehi,  on  the  Utah  Central  road, 
and  afterwards  at  Salt  Lake  City.  It  is  a  very 
long  time  ago.  He  used  to  talk  to  me  about - 
about  —  running  away,  and  joining  his  mother 
and  sisters." 

44  So  you  goin'  lun  away,  now  ?  " 

"  Oh,  Choy  Susan,  how  can  I  ?  He  has  n't 
asked  me.  He  does  n't  know  I  am  here  —  I 
don't  want  to  marry  anybody  —  ever.  I  only 
want  somebody  to  sympathize  with  me  —  to 
Jcnoiv." 

She  burst  into  hysterical  sobs,  and  put  her 
handkerchief  to  her  face. 

44  Finding  you  here,  I  —  I  thought  I  would 
get  you  to  take  a  note  to  him,"  she  added  : 
44  but  he  will  never  get  it." 

44  Urn  !  "  commented  Choy  Susan.  u  This 
new  husbin,  he  goin'  be  Mormin,  too  ?  Takee 
plenty  more  wife,  alle  same  likee  Chinaman?" 

44  Yes,  he  is  Mormon,  too.  They  would  not 
let  me  marry  any  other.  They  would  think  it 
my  everlasting  perdition.  He  is  a  relation  of 
mine.  I  've  never  seen  him  but  once  —  and  he 
is  old,  and  —  and  ugly  —  and  I  hate  him." 

44  No  good  for  woman  to  mally  man  with 
plenty  otha  wife,"  said  Choy  Susan,  with  a 


14  ClIOY  SUSAN. 

philosophic  air,  after  a  pause.    "  My  makee  big 
mistake  myself." 

"  Ah  ?  " 

The  listener  turned  an  attentive  ear  to  sym 
pathetic  wisdom  even  from  so  rude  a  source  as 
this. 

"  Yes.  You  heap  good  lookee,  but  heap  good 
lookee  can  catchee  alle  same  plenty  bad  time." 

Choy  Susan  meant,  no  doubt,  that  even  great 
beauty  may  be  coupled  with  a  hapless  fate, 
which  we  all  know  is  true  enough.  "  My 
know  how  it  was  myself,"  she  continued.  "  My 
tellee  you.  My  husbin  name  Hop  Lee.  My 
mally  Hop  Lee  when  my  Jesus  girl,  down 
Stocktin  Stleet  Mission.  He  Jesus  boy,  too." 

"  Oh,  you  were  Christians,  then  ?  " 

"  One  time ;  not  now.  Hop  Lee  he  say, 
'  You  mally  me ;  I  got  heap  big  store,  heap 
money.  You  no  work  sewin'-m'chine  ;  you 
catchee  plenty  good  time,  plenty  loafee.  I  no 
takee  no  more  wife.' " 

"  He  promised  you  not  to  marry  again, 
then  ?  " 

"  He  plomise."  The  speaker  closed  one  eye 
shrewdly  ;  then  reopened  it.  "  Birneby  plitty 
click  I  get  sick,  small-pock.  He  say,  4  You  no 
good.  Shut  up  !  I  goin'  bling  otha  wife.'  He 
bling  two  more  wife.  They  beatee  me  ;  makee 
work  sewin'-m'chine  alle  time,  alle  time,  alle 
samee  likee  slave." 


CEOY  SUSAN.  15 

"  Poor  Choy  Susan  ! " 

"  Yes.  So  one  day  I  Inn  'way.  Catchee 
money  and  man  clothes,  catchee  railroad,  and 
goee  Salt  Lake  City." 

"  And  that  was  the  time  when  you  had 
broken  your  arm,  and  I  met  you  there  ?  " 

"Yes,  and  you  helpa  me.  Biraeby  I  go 
Bodie;  then  come  here,  get  pardner,  go  fish, 
and  kleep  store." 

44  And  what  has  become  of  Hop  Lee  ?  " 

"  He  dead,"  said  Choy  Susan,  contemptu 
ously.  "  I  pray  Jesus  'ligion  first  time  makee 
Hop  Lee  die,  but  it  no  makee  him  die.  Then 
I  pray  China  'ligion  makee  die,  and  China 
'ligion  makee  die,  and  both  wife  too,  light 
away,  plitty  click.  China  joss  much  more 
good.  Jesus  'ligion  no  good." 

"  Oh,  no,  you  must  not  say  that !  "  expostu 
lated  the  girl ;  but  she  was  easily  led  back  to 
her  own  affair,  to  which  the  Chinese  inter 
preter  returned. 

"  When  you  father  and  otha  man  comin' 
back  ?  "  inquired  the  latter. 

"  Inside  of  four  or  five  days  ;  and  then  it 
will  have  to  be  done,"  the  fair  speaker  whim 
pered  tearfully. 

"  Oh,  plenty  muchee  time !   plenty  time  ! 
reassuringly.     "  Easte'by  he  get  letter,  he  come. 
You  see ! " 


16  CffOY  SUSAN. 

Yank  Baldwin  now  came  up  and  interrupted, 
having  taken  his  eccentric  pony  away  from  the 
chaotic  scramble,  and  secured  him  in  a  place  of 
safety. 

"  Crazy  as  a  bedbug  ! "  he  condescended  to 
explain.  "  He 's  eat  some  o'  this  here  rattle- 
weed,  loco-weed,  what  grows  in  the  pastures. 
It  gives  'em  a  kind  o'  jim-jams.  He  goes  like 
that  every  time  he  starts  out.  Never  knows 
when  to  stop.  He  'd  run  himself  to  death  if 
you  'd  let  him.  Run  away  once't  with  a  pay 
master's  wagon,  and  seven  thousand  dollars  un 
der  the  seat,  and  was  out  all  night,  and  found 
asleep  on  his  feet  next  mornin',  in  the  woods." 

His  new  acquaintance  made  a  polite  pretense 
of  listening,  but  furtively  edged  off,  at  the  same 
time,  to  take  her  departure. 

"  He  '11  go  down,  some  day,  all  of  a  heap,  like 
the  sun  in  the  tropicts,"  said  the  man,  follow 
ing  her  up.  "  There 's  folks  like  that,  too,  — 
always  on  the  jump,  always  burnin'  the  candle 
at  both  ends.  I  've  been  a  good  deal  that  way 
myself.  I  've  been  thinkin'  it 's  'bout  time  for 
me  to  get  me  a  good,  spry,  harnsome  wife,  and 
settle  down." 

He  accompanied  this  speech  with  a  glance 
of  bold  admiration  which  had  a  meaning  plainly 
evident. 

Yank  Baldwin's  theory  was  "  love  at   first 


CUOY  SUSAN.  17 

sight,"  and  by  no  means  confined  to  a  single 
occasion  either.  His  stock  of  devotion  lay  very 
near  the  surface,  and  subject  to  many  and 
prompt  demands.  It  was  said  of  him  that  he 
had  once  proposed  to  a  waiter-girl  at  Frisco  on 
her  bringing  the  second  cup  of  coffee,  and  had 
lost  her  only  through  being  distanced  by  a 
comrade  who  had  already  secured  her  after  the 
first. 

The  fair  stranger  did  not  remain  long  to  lis 
ten  to  these  gallantries,  but  tripped  demurely 
away  from  the  hamlet,  going  in  the  direction 
of  the  Palace  Boarding  House,  at  no  great  dis 
tance  off. 

"  Who  is  she  ?  "  inquired  Baldwin,  looking 
after  her. 

"  She  one  o'  them  Mormins,  —  friend  o'  mine 
over  to  Salt  Lake." 

"She  ain't  no  Mormon,"  in  strong  incredu 
lity. 

"  She  Mormin,  —  you  hear  me  ?  "  retorted 
Choy  Susan,  severely.  "  Goiri'  mally  man  with 
heap  otha  wife  alle  same  likee  Chinaman,  too." 

"  Go  'way  !  " 

He  whistled  softly. 

"  You  go  'way !  "  returned  Choy  Susan,  in 
her  most  rowdy  manner. 

"  Where  's  she  stoppin'  ?  "  the  storekeeper 
inquired,  reflectively. 


18  CHOY  SUSAN. 

"  Palace  Boardin'  House." 

"  That 's  where  I  take  my  meals  myself, 
when  I  'm  up  here  from  camp.  I  '11  be  goiii' 
over  there  pretty  soon." 

He  whistled  several  times  more,  low  medita 
tive  whistles  of  peculiar  meaning. 

"  What  was  Ten  Moon  up  to,  down  there  to 
camp  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  Guess  he  want  see  China  cook,"  the  woman 
replied,  carelessly.  "  Goin'  back  to  China  day 
after  to-morra.  Takee  boat  down  there,"  point 
ing  to  the  junk  in  the  bay;  "  then  big  boat  on 
big  water  from  Frisco." 

Upon  this  they  returned  to  the  matter  of 
securing  hands  for  the  railroad.  Yank  Bald 
win  interrupted  once  more,  however,  as  if  dis 
missing,  in  a  final  way,  some  absurd  idea  that 
might  have  flashed  through  his  brain. 

"  No  Mormon  in  mine !  Not  any !  That 
ain't  what  I  'm  after.  Spanish  Luisa  's  bet 
ter  'n  that,  a  mighty  sight." 

It  was  necessary  to  see  Yuen  Wa,  Choy  Su 
san's  "  pardner,"  about  the  negotiation.  He 
had  been  a  contractor  for  labor  in  his  time, 
and  still  kept,  more  or  less,  the  run  of  such 
matters.  He  was  found  now  in  the  stuffy  little 
shop,  a  place  full  of  curious  truck,  specimens  of 
the  fine  large  avallonia  shells  from  the  beach, 
dried  avallonia  meat  raid  goose  livers,  opium 


CHOY  SUSAN.  19 

pipes,  sticks  of  India  ink,  silver  jewelry,  and 
packets  of  face  powder  for  the  women.  A 
wizened-up  little  old  man,  with  a  thin,  piping 
voice,  and  reticent  of  speech,  he  was  more  like 
one  of  his  own  idols  than  anything  else.  It 
was  easy  to  see  that  he  was  a  person  of  minor 
importance  as  compared  with  his  more  vigorous 
feminine  associate. 

"All  our  available  labor,"  explained  Yuen 
Wa,  in  substance,  "  is  needed  to-morrow  and 
next  day  to  get  the  junk  Good  Success  and 
Golden  Profits  off  to  sea.  After  that,  comes  a 
series  of  '  good '  days,  a  festival,  when  we  do 
no  work  at  all.  But  after  that"  — 

"  Never  you  mind,"  said  Yank  Baldwin. 
"  I  '11  go  and  see  them  Eyetalians  over  to  Mon 
terey.  May  be  I  kin  get  enough  o'  them.  If 
I  can't,  I  '11  come  back.  —  And  may  be  none 
won't  be  needed  any  way.  It 's  kinder  onsar- 


As  he  was  going,  he  observed  Choy  Susan 
pick  up,  as  with  some  surprise,  a  couple  of 
small  English  volumes,  from  one  end  of  her 
counter. 

"B'long  to  she.  Leave 'm  here,  I  guess, 
when  she  comee  see  me,  yest'd'y,"  she  said,  re 
flectively. 

"Whose?  hern  ?  "  said  Yank  Baldwin,  stand 
ing  beside  her  as  she  opened  them.  "  I  'm  goin' 


20  CHOY  SUSAN. 

back  her  way.  I  '11  give  'em  to  her,"  and  he 
took  them  from  her  eagerly,  almost  by  force. 

One  proved  to  be  a  book  of  doctrines  of  the 
church  of  Mormon,  or  Latter-Day  Saints.  The 
other  was  a  novel  somewhat  noted  for  its  pe 
culiarly  tender  and  affecting  love  passages. 
In  the  former  was  inscribed,  in  a  prim,  small, 
girlish  hand,  the  name  —  probably  of  the  owner 
—  Marcella  Eudora  Grilham,  Deseret  University, 
Salt  Lake  City.  Underneath  was  a  date  of 
about  two  years  earlier. 

Some  passages  of  the  doctrines  were  heavily 
underscored  in  pencil,  as  if  they  might  have 
been  subject  of  peculiar  wrestling  and  study, 
or  perhaps,  again,  in  triumphant  recognition  of 
their  force  against  error. 

Yank  Baldwin  turned  the  volumes  musingly, 
as  he  went  along,  and  more  than  once  nearly 
came  to  grief  over  obstructions  on  the  road  on 
account  of  them.  And  he  whistled  softly  to 
himself  a  great  many  times  more. 


II. 

THE  PALACE  BOARDING  HOUSE. 

The  Palace  Boarding  House  had  once  been 
an  inn.  It  was  enjoying  a  slight  revival  of 
prosperity  at  present  through  the  burning  down 


CHOY  SUSAN.  21 

of  the  hotel  at  the  American  -  Spanish  town 
near  by,  which  it  adjoins  on  the  one  hand, 
as  it  did  the  Chinese  village  on  the  other.  It 
lay  at  the  intersection  of  two  roads,  leading 
respectively  up  and  down  the  coast  and  back 
into  the  interior.  Behind  it  were  great  dusky 
woods  of  a  moss-hung  pine  and  cypress  peculiar 
to  the  coast,  and  before  it  was  the  sea,  pali 
saded  by  bold  gray  cliffs.  It  was  but  a  ram 
bling  shingle  edifice,  in  shabby  repair,  and  its 
title  was  hardly  borne  out  by  the  facts,  but 
was,  rather,  a  tribute  from  the  florid  imagina 
tion  of  the  place. 

At  one  corner  of  the  shabby  veranda  creaked 
a  large  signboard,  reading  thus  :  — 


PALACE    BOARDING    HOUSE, 

SQUARE  MEALS,  $1.00. 
BY  MRS.  JANE  McCURDY. 


Some  hens  were  scratching .  about  the  sterile 
door-yard,  and  a  colt,  with  his  head  triced  up 
in  a  breaking-bridle,  was  wandering  there,  with 
a  portentous  sense  of  the  indignity  of  his  situa 
tion. 

Yank  Baldwin  was  late  at  dinner,  and  his 
new  acquaintance,  Miss  Marcella  Eudora  Gil- 
ham,  was  late  also  and  the  only  guest  at  table 


22  cnor  SUSAN. 

with  him.  He  was  so  impressed  with  her  anew 
that  he  forgot  for  some  time  to  give  back  the 
books  he  had  brought.  He  paused  in  admi 
ration  with  his  fork  half  raised  to  his  mouth. 
She  had  made  some  slight  new  adjustments  to 
her  toilette.  She  was  without  the  flamboyant 
hat,  had  added  a  fresh  new  bow  at  the  neck, 
and  her  smooth  hair  was  smoother  than  ever. 
He  contrasted  hers  with  the  somewhat  frowzy 
style  of  Spanish  Luisa,  of  Monterey;  and 
though  the  raven  tresses,  heavy  eye-brows,  and 
soft  and  melting  mouth  of  this  latter  were  of  a 
genuine  fascination,  he  felt  the  contrast  as  one 
most  unfavorable  to  her. 

Finally  he  bethought  him  of  the  books,  re 
turned  them,  and  made  various  other  ingrati 
ating  advances,  but  for  the  moment  without 
notable  success. 

"If  she  wa'n't  Mormon,  I  don't  s'pose  I 
could  expect  her  to  look  the  same  side  o'  the 
road  I  was  on,"  he  said  to  himself. 

Mrs.  Jane  McCurdy,  the  landlady,  now  came 
in  from  her  arduous  labors  in  the  kitchen,  to 
permit  herself  the  solace  of  her  own  dinner. 

"  Mr.  Bald'in,  he 's  connected  with  the  new 
railroad,"  she  said  to  Marcella,  by  way  of  aid 
ing  to  bring  about  a  sociable  feeling  between 
the  two  guests. 

"  My  eldest  son,  he 's  allers  follered  firm',  too, 


CHOY  SUSAN.  23 

on  the  railroad,  or  else  teamin',  one.  I  dnnno 
just  what  is  become  of  him  now,"  she  con 
tinued,  foraging,  and  making  judicious  selec 
tions  from  the  lukewarm  viands  remaining  on 
the  various  tables. 

It  seemed  as  if  Marcella  regarded  the  store 
keeper  upon  this  with  an  increase  of  interest. 
She  had  a  certain  meditative  way  of  looking  at 
him,  and  began  to  talk  more  amiably,  though 
on  general  topics. 

"  Somebody  was  sayin'  how  she  was  a  Mor 
mon,"  suggested  Yank  Baldwin  to  the  landlady, 
when  the  girl  had  finally  left  the  room. 

"  I  expect  she  is,"  sighed  that  hardworked 
woman,  sitting  down  in  a  weary  way. 

"  Josephite,  most  likely  ?  I  've  seen  Joseph- 
ites  down  to  San  Barnardino.  They  ain't  much 
different  from  other  folks." 

"  No,  I  expect  she 's  one  o'  the  reglar  uns." 

"  Not  solid  Mormon  ?  " 

"  Solid"  said  Mrs.  McCurdy,  shutting  out 
the  last  ray  of  hope,  as  she  peeled  a  cold  boiled 
potato. 

Yank  Baldwin  groaned  in  spirit. 

"  Her  father,  he 's  a  kind  o'  bishop,  or  'pos- 
tle,  among  'em,  I  guess,"  went  on  the  landlady, 
gossiping.  "  Round  this  way  to  visit  among 
the  brethren  and  do  a  stroke  o'  business  at  the 
same  time,  introducin'  goods.  I  see  his  cards, 


24  CHOY  SUSAN. 

with  Zion's  Cob'ppyrative  Bazaar  onto  'em,  and 
a  pile  o'  tracts  on  religion,  lyin'  in  his  room. 
They  went  over  to  try  and  sell  some  things  to 
the  China  stores  the  fust  day  they  come,  and 
the  daughter  she  run  acrost  Choy  Susan  there. 
'Pears  she  knew  her  of  old." 

"  So  I  understand." 

"  There  's  a  kind  o'  scatterin'  of  the  brethren 
round  through  here,  on  account  o'  some  bein' 
left  over  after  the  Mexikirt>  war,  and  there's 
others  a-formin'  new  settlements.  They  say 
they're  a-goin'  to  settle  all  over  everything 
after  a  while,  but  I  dun  no." 

"  Sho !  "  commented  Yank  Baldwin. 

"  I  've  had  consid'rable  many  of  'em  stop  with 
me,  off  and  on.  Fact  is,  I  had  a  sister  among 
'em  once't.  They  roped  her  in,  some  way,  down 
in  Illinois,  in  early  times.  She  used  to  see 
hull  quires  of  angils ;  I  dunno  but  what  't  was 


"  Well,  how  's  business  ?  "  inquired  the  store 
keeper,  affecting  a  brisk  air  as  he  put  on  his 
wide  slouch  hat,  after  finishing  his  meal. 

"You  know  of  any  good  China  cook?"  re 
turned  the  landlady,  answering  his  question 
absently  with  another.  "Ten  Moon  's  goin' 
back  to  his  own  country,  and  I  've  got  to  git 
somebody.  Them  camp-meetin'  folks,  too,  '11 
be  down  this  way  pretty  quick,  to  open  up  at 


CHOT  SUSAN.  25 

Pacific  Grove,  and  that  allers  makes  consid'rable 
extra  eatin'.  Rev.  Samyil  Snow  has  writ.  He 
gin 'rally  writes  to  let  me  know  when  they  're 
comin'." 

"  You  better  hustle  round  pretty  lively,  then," 
said  Baldwin.  "The  head  o'  construction  's 
goin'  to  be  moved  up  this  way,  too,  from  Sloan's 
Camp.  I  should  n't  wonder  if  we  started,  now, 
inside  o'  three  or  four  days.  That  '11  make 
more  extra  eatin'  for  you." 

Marcella  Gilham  was  waiting  for  him  on  the 
veranda,  when  he  came  out.  She  talked  a  while 
on  indifferent  matters  ;  then,  as  if  by  the  way, — 

"  Oh,  are  you  acquainted  with  a  young  man, 
on  the  railroad,  by  the  name  of  Rufus  D.  Eas- 
terby  ?  "  she  asked. 

"  What,  Rufe  ?    Ruf  us  D.  ?    I  should  say  so." 

"  He  is  a  chain-man,  with  the  surveyors." 

"  He  ain't  no  chain-man  now.  He  's  got  to 
be  transit-man,  at  seventy-five  dollars  a  month 
and  found.  Picked  it  all  up  himself.  Picks  up 
everything  himself.  You  know  him  ?  " 

"  I  have  met  him,"  she  replied,  evasively. 

"Well,  you've  met  a  bang-up  good  feller, 
and  a  smart  un.  He  's  bound  to  be  division 
engineer  'fore  a  great  while,  is  Rufus." 

"  If  you  should  happen  to  see  him  when  you 
go  back,  you  might  mention  that  you  had  seen 
me  here." 


26  CHOY  SUSAN. 

"  O'  course  I  will ;  o'  course  I  '11  mention  it. 
He  often  comes  into  my  tent  of  an  evening  and 
chins.  He  's  give  me  advice  more  'n  once  that 
I  Ve  follered  up  and  made  money  out  of." 

Marcella  was  very  gracious  now,  at  con 
siderable  length,  to  the  storekeeper.  As  he 
mounted  and  rode  away,  she  called  out  to 
him, — 

"  I  hope  I  shall  have  the  pleasure  of  seeing 
you  again." 

But  the  next  moment  she  turned  away,  and 
said  to  herself  mournfully,  "  If  I  have  made  a 
good  impression  upon  him,  and  the  letter  has 
miscarried,  this  man  may  yet  bring  me  news." 

"  Well,  be  good  to  yourself  !  "  concluded 
Yank  Baldwin,  galloping  away  on  his  queer 
pony,  who  had  no  terrors  for  him,  immensely 
flattered  at  her  favor. 

"  Hopes  she  '11  have  the  pleasure  o'  seein'  me 
agin,  does  she  ?  "  he  soliloquized.  "  Pity  'bout 
her  bein'  a  Mormon,  ain't  it.  Should  n't  won 
der,  now,  if  I  could  convert  that  there  girl  over 
as  easy  as  rollin'  off  a  log." 

He  repeated  many  times  more  in  the  course 
of  the  evening,  "Pity  'bout  her  bein'  Mormon, 
ain't  it  ?  "  together  with  the  suggestion  of  con 
verting  her.  Converting  her  to  what  ?  It  would 
have  been  very  hard  to  say.  Yank  Baldwin's 
own  theological  opinions  were  of  an  extremely 
indefinite  sort. 


CHOY  SUSAN.  27 

He  wandered  in  an  aimless  way  about  his 
store,  with  its  stock  of  overalls,  cowhide  boots, 
blankets,  tin  cups,  powder  and  shot,  kerosene, 
and  bags  of  meal  and  potatoes,  distributed  over 
the  ground,  and  a  rude  counter  and  row  of 
shelves  behind  it.  The  usual  visitors  came  in, 
and  sat  around  a  barrel,  now  forming  a  con 
venient  nucleus,  instead  of  the  winter  stove. 

An  inspiration  suddenly  took  him  to  move  his 
store  on  the  morrow,  without  waiting  further. 
He  should  be  near  her,  and  would  have  the 
ampler  leisure,  before  the  rest  of  the  camp 
should  follow,  to  cultivate  her  acquaintance. 
Some  mongrel  Indians  of  the  neighborhood 
came  in  for  a  transaction  in  an  article  of  stove- 
blacking  which  they  were  using  as  a  choice 
quality  of  face-paint,  and  this  completed  his 
disgust  and  his  readiness  to  go. 

"  No  use  o'  stayin'  here ;  there  ain't  no  busi 
ness  doin',"  he  said.  Then  he  addressed  him 
self  to  a  couple  of  stout  young  fellows  who  had 
hauled  some  supplies  into  camp  that  day,  and 
had  a  team  standing  idle. 

"  Sa7>  you  young  roosters  !  what  '11  you  take, 
to  move  my  fixtures  complete  up  to  the  new 
location  to-morrer  ?  " 

The  teamsters  named  a  price. 

"  You  don't  want  the  job,"  he  said,  curtly. 

"  The  feed  of  the  horses  will  cost  so  much," 
they  argued. 


28  CHOY  SUSAN.' 

"  No  livin'  horses  can  eat  so  much." 
"  The  tent  alone  will  make  one  load." 
"  No,  it  won't  make  not  half  a  load." 
"  It  will  take  a  couple  of  days  to  do  the  job." 
"  Ah-a !  you  '11  have  it  all  done  by  to-morrer 
noon,"  contemptuously. 

The  "young  roosters  "  uttered  a  cry  of  indig 
nation. 

"  Oh,  I  mean  if  you  work.  And  when  I  say 
work,  I  don't  mean  dawdlin'  and  goin'  to  sleep 
over  it,  the  way  you  work  for  the  railroad, 
either." 

The  spectators  took  sides  for  and  against  in 
this  argument.  The  teamsters  now  went  out 
side  the  tent,  laid  their  heads  together  myste 
riously,  and  returned  with  a  new  price. 

This  was  in  turn  rejected,  and  the  negotia 
tion  seemed  wholly  at  an  end. 

"  Well,  I  '11  raise  you  the  five  dollars  any 
way,"  spoke  out  Yank  Baldwin,  in  fine,  from 
a  gloomy  silence.  He  infused  as  much  super 
ciliousness  as  possible  into  his  consent.  "  But 
see  you  get  started  at  daylight,  and  don't  you 
forget  it ! " 

He  felt  that  feminine  influence  —  and  it  was 
not  for  the  first  time  —  had  crippled  him.     If 
left  unbiased,  he  would  have  brought  the  mat 
ter  to  a  much  more  advantageous  conclusion. 
Marcella  hovered  near,  on  his  arrival  at  the 


CHOY  SUSAN.  29 

new  site  next  day  with  his  second  load  of  effects. 
As  he  volunteered  nothing  about  Easterby  of 
his  own  accord,  she  came  to  the  point. 

"No,  I  hain't  seen  nothin'  of  him,"  said  Bald 
win  in  response.  "  Fact  is,  he  's  off  sornewheres, 
though  I  guess  he  '11  be  back  'fore  a  great  while. 
A  letter  came  for  him  yest'd'y,  too,  and  is  waitin' 
for  him,  unless  they  Ve  sent  it  on." 

The  girl  turned  quickly  away  to  hide  her  dis 
appointment  at  this  cheerless  intelligence. 

Whether  roused  by  the  early  start  of  its 
storekeeper,  or  for  other  reasons,  the  whole  of 
Sloan's  Camp  got  in  motion  the  same  day  much 
in  advance  of  its  original  intention.  By  night 
fall  a  considerable  number  of  the  tents  were 
pitched,  and  the  head  of  construction  wa*s  defin 
itely  established  at  the  new  location. 

This  was  a  deep  little  valley,  made  charming 
by  a  babbling  brook,  amid  embowering  woods. 
The  rattle  of  the  powder  blasts  in  the  adjoin 
ing  canyon  already  began  to  resound  there, 
from  the  new  railroad  coming  rapidly  on. 

Yank  Baldwin  was  not  more  than  half  in^ 
stalled  when  he  began  to  pay  his  court  to  Mar- 
cella.  He  invited  her  to  camp  after  supper, 
to  see  the  planet  Jupiter,  its  moons  now  of  a 
peculiar  distinctness,  through  the  surveyors' 
transit.  She  accepted,  taking  Mrs.  McCurdy 
with  her,  however,  for  further  companionship. 


30  CHOY  SUSAN. 

Perhaps  she  might  happen  upon  some  news  at 
the  camp.  Perhaps,  even,  —  but  that  was  too 
good  to  be  true,  —  Easterby  himself  might  by 
this  time  have  arrived. 

The  tents,  with  their  lights  within,  glowed 
translucent  in  the  dusk,  like  some  strange  great 
kind  of  lanterns.  The  noise  of  the  clear  run 
ning  brook  smote  musically  upon  the  ear ;  the 
stars  twinkled  down  over  the  edge  of  the  nar 
row  valley,  and  Jupiter  was  found  in  fact  ex 
ceptionally  brilliant.  The  engineer,  the  rod- 
man,  the  two  chain-men,  and  the  axe-man  had 
come,  with  a  very  polite  man  temporarily  in 
charge  of  the  transit  instrument.  But  East 
erby  had  not  arrived,  nor  did  the  few  timid 
inquiries  the  gentle  visitor  dared  to  propound 
bring  any  definite  information  about  him,  if  in 
deed  there  were  any  to  give. 

She  tried  to  bear  up,  however,  and  on  the 
return  artfully  drew  out  Yank  Baldwin  on  the 
habits  of  railroad  constructors  and  surveyors. 

"  Are  the  surveyors  usually  married  ?  "  she 
inquired.  "  Is  Mr.  Easterby,  for  example  ?  " 

"  If  not,  have  they  often  —  sweethearts  ?  " 

"Has  Mr.  Easterby?" 

"  I  should  n't  wonder  if  he  had  had,  or  may 
be  has  yet,"  returned  her  informant.  "  I  Ve 
kinder  thought  so.  He  don't  take  no  great 
shine  to  the  girls." 


CHOY  SUSAN.  31 

"  Why  ?  Was  you  particular  interested  in 
him  ?  "  he  broke  off  sharply,  perhaps  inspired 
with  a  sudden  suspicion. 

"Oh,  not  at  all.  Only  it  is  easier  to  talk 
about  a  common  acquaintance,  don't  you  know." 

The  storekeeper  ventured  into  the  "settin'- 
room  "  at  the  Palace  Boarding  House,  though 
not  greatly  at  home  in  such  places,  and  the 
interview  was  much  prolonged.  Ten  Moon, 
the  departing  cook,  was  to  "set  a  table  to  the 
devil  "  that  night  to  invoke  favorable  auspices 
for  his  journey,  and  there  was  a  desire  on  the 
part  of  some  to  witness  it.  Such  a  table  was 
in  fact  set  out,  with  the  due  allowance  of  rice, 
rice-brandy,  roast  fowl,  and  sweetmeats,  and 
the  house  was  up  till  a  much  later  hour  than 
usual. 

Marcella  after  a  time  brought  forth,  as  a 
part  of  her  resources  of  entertainment,  a  photo 
graph  album. 

"  My  brother,  —  my  sister,"  she  said,  point 
ing  out  one  youn|r  face  after  another,  among 
whom  was  much  dissimilarity  of  looks. 

"  Large  fambly  !  "  commented  Yank  Bald 
win,  dryly. 

He  was  burning  to  attack  her  strange  creed, 
and  begin  the  conversion  to  which  he  believed 
his  influence  would  render  her  so  easy  a  prey. 

She  let  fall,  inadvertently  no  doubt,  some  ex- 


32  CHOY  SUSAN. 

i 

pression  about  the  "  Saints  "  and  the  "  Celestial 
Marriage."  This  was  his  opportunity. 

"  Celestyil  gammon  !  "  he  broke  out.  "  Now 
see  here,  you  ain't  one  o'  them  kind  that  be 
lieves  in  a  husband  with  forty  -'leven  other 
wives,  are  you  ?  " 

The  girl  sighed  heavily. 

"  You  ought  to  tie  up  to  some  good,  strong, 
likely  feller  that  'ud  look  out  for  you  only,  and 
nobody  else,"  he  continued. 

Marcella  Eudora  Gilham  sighed  again,  more 
heavily  than  before.  The  strange  thing  about 
it  was  that  she  showed  no  resentment. 

"  What  does  it  do  in  these  here  novils  ? " 
bringing  his  hand  down  on  the  one  returned  to 
her.  "  I  've  read  more  'n  one  of  'em  before 
now.  Why,  they  shows  just  two  folks,  and  no 
more,  a-lovin'  for  keeps;  a-stickin'  to  each 
other  through  thickness  and  thinness,  through 
betterness  and  worseness,  a-havin'  no  end  o' 
rackets,  but  comin'  out  all  right  in  the  wind- 
up,  and  don't  you  forgit  it."* 

Marcella  took  up  the  book  herself,  affection 
ately,  as  if  she  may  have  been  mindful  of  cer 
tain  passages  that  had  had  an  influence  on  her 
life.  But : 

"  I  suppose  I  ought  not  to  read  novels,"  she 
sighed.  "  Our  Book  of  Nephi  calls  them  '  the 
vain  imaginations  and  pride  of  the  children  of 
men.' " 


CHOY  SUSAN.  33 

"  Book  of —  well !  "  began  her  companion  in 
disgust.  "  Well,  I  can't  say  I  've  seen  much 
o'  your  folks  myself,  but  I  know  all  about  'em 
from  Rufe  Easterby.  He 's  seen  the  whole 
thing.  He  says  the  women  is  the  wust." 

"  Did  he  say  that  ?  " 

The  Mormon  girl  started  now  with  resent 
ment  indeed,  and  the  warm  blood  rushed  to 
her  cheek. 

"  He  says  they  're  the  biggest  fools  that  ever 
was  heard  of,"  pursued  Yank  Baldwin  imper- 
turbably.  His  strongest  point  was  not  refine 
ment,  either  in  argument  or  speech.  "  The 
head  men  preaches  to  'em  that  it 's  their  duty 
to  git  their  own  livin' ;  and  they  believe  it  all, 
and  go  on  and  grub  their  fingers  to  the  bone. 
The  thing  can  be  run  ad  liberty  that  way,  with 
out  its  costin'  the  men  a  cent." 

Perhaps  there  reechoed  through  his  fair  au 
ditor's  brain  at  this  point  sonorous  words  from 
sermons  she  had  heard  at  the  Tabernacle : 

"  In  that  day  seven  women  will  plead  with 
one  man  to  take  them  as  wives,  promising  to 
eat  their  own  bread  and  wear  their  own  ap 
parel,  if  he  will  only  consent  for  them  to  be 
called  by  his  name." 

"  They  even  make  the  men  take  more  wives 
than  they  want  to,"  continued  Yank  Baldwin. 
"  The  poor  benighted  creeturs  thinks  all  hands 


34  CHOY  SUSAN. 

'11  git  a  higher  place  in  heaven.  Oh,  they  're 
too  cute  for  anything,  them  sly  old  Mormon 
foxes  !  " 

With  this  onslaught  Yank  Baldwin  was  about 
to  depart  in  triumph.  He  felt  that  the  success 
ful  end-  of  his  labors  could  not  now  be  far  dis 
tant.  But  Marcella  let  fall  an  inoffensive-seem 
ing  remark,  which  put  a  new  aspect  on  the 
case. 

"  The  greatest  men  of  ancient  times,"  she 
said,  "  those  of  the  Bible,  had  many  wives  at 
once." 

"  Go  way !  They  did  n't  though  ?  "  he  cried 
astonished. 

But  she  brought  the  Scriptures,  and  showed 
the  indisputable  cases  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and 
Jacob,  and  other  famous  polygamists. 

This  was  news  to  Yank  Baldwin,  as,  we  may 
say,  very  much  more  in  the  sacred  books  would 
also  have  been.  He  felt  himself  checked  in 
mid  career,  and  went  away  in  a  half  dazed  con 
dition. 

He  recalled  well,  nevertheless,  how  charm 
ingly  the  color  had  come  and  gone  in  her  com 
plexion  as  they  argued.  Dusky  Spanish  Luisa, 
she  of  the  raven  hair  and  melting  mouth,  van 
ished  completely  out  of  mind. 

"  May  be  Mormon  ain't  no  such  great  differ 
ence  from  Spanish,  any  way,"  he  mused,  appar- 


CHOY  SUSAN.  35 

ently  making  provision  for  the  case  that  his 

plan   of    conversion   might   not   succeed.  "  I 

s'pose  it  couldn't  do  any  great  hurt,  her  be- 
longin'  to  'em." 


III. 


THE  SAILING  OF  THE  GOOD  SUCCESS  AND 
GOLDEN   PROFITS. 

As  there  was  no  news  for  Marcella  from  any 
source  on  the  following  morning  either,  and 
the  time  for  action  was  growing  so  perilously 
short,  she  could  not  forbear  once  more  accost 
ing  the  storekeeper  on  the  subject  of  Easterby. 

"  The  fact  is,"  now  said  he,  "  I  '11  let  it  out 
to  you.  Easterby  's  ben  sent  down  the  line  to 
stave  off  a  strike  among  some  Mexican  labor 
ers,  and  I  ben  seem'  if  I  could  help  git  some 
extry  hands  here  in  case  they  was  needed. 
They  may  strike,  and  may  not.  We  didn't 
want  nothin'  said  about  it  till  we  see  how  it 
was  comin'  out." 

"  And  why  was  he  sent  ?    He  is  a  surveyor." 

"  Well,  he  's  picked  up  their  lingo  some 
where,  and  has  got  a  takin'  way  with  him.  If 
he  could  n't  do  it,  nobody  could." 

She  hurried  with  this  statement  to  Choy  Su 
san,  in  the  Chinese  village.  She  was  in  utter 


36  CHOT  SUSAN. 

despair,  believing  that  Easterby  now  would  not 
be  found,  would  not  come  at  all.  Oh,  surely, 
now  nothing  could  be  done  ! 

She  wrung  her  hands.  The  Chinawoman 
tried  again  to  comfort  her. 

"  You  got  more  money,"  she  suggested,  "  my 
send  one  more  time  messagy,  bling  light  away 
back  good  news  ?  " 

"  Oh,  Choy  Susan,  I  have  no  more  money," 
and  she  let  fall  her  hand  helplessly  upon  her 
pocket. 

"  Alle  lite  !  "  promptly  concluded  Choy  Su 
san,  laying  aside  the  brief  mercenary  impulse. 
She  summoned  Qum  Tock,  an  intelligent  youth, 
swift  of  foot,  and  sent  him  off  on  her  own  ac 
count,  with  instructions  to  find  Rufus  Easterby 
at  every  hazard,  and  bring  him  back. 

His  employer,  Mow,  the  emblem-maker,  came 
presently  to  complain  of  the  boy's  being  taken 
away  from  his  work ;  but  Choy  Susan  opened 
a  battery  of  invective  upon  him  with  excellent 
effect,  using  her  English  for  the  greater  impres- 
siveness. 

"  Shut  up  !  Git  out  !  Hire  some  hall  I 
Don't  you  forget  how  ! "  she  said,  and  Mow, 
the  emblem-maker,  retired,  totally  discomfited. 

Yank  Baldwin  came  to  Choy.  Susan  the  same 
morning,  on  the  curious  business  of  asking  her 
"to  speak  a  good  word"  for  him,  in  the  matri- 


CHOY  SUSAN.  37 

monial  way,  with  Marcella.  Such  a  pass  had 
he  finally  reached  in  going  away  after  the 
woman  of  Moab.  He  offered  Susan  a  consid 
erable  reward  if  she  should  enable  him  to  suc 
ceed.  She  showed  no  great  surprise  at  the 
proposition,  but  responded  in  her  brusque  way, 
"  Alle  lite  !  But  you  plomise  you  no  say 
nothin'  to  she  till  I  fix.  See  ?  " 

To  this  he  assented.  He  presently  met  once 
more  Marcella  herself,  wandering  disconsolately 
on  the  cliffs,  and  joined  her.  They  sat  for  a 
while  at  a  charming  point  where  the  gnarled 
roots  of  stout  old  trees  gripped  the  rocks  with 
a  firm  hold,  and  white  spray  dashed  high  up 
into  the  air  as  if  in  greetings  to  them  from 
curious  caverns  below.  They  went  next  to  the 
beach  and  found  there  curious  large  shells,  sea 
weeds  as  red  as  coral,  and  another  of  a  single 
long  smooth  stem,  coiled  like  a  huge  whip  or 
serpent. 

Noisy  gulls  and  pelicans  hovered  above  the 
neighboring  reefs,  holding  chattering  conven 
tions.  In  front  the  blue  waters  of  the  bay 
stretched  out  to  meet  the  illimitable  ocean. 
Across  them  was  seen  tacking  a  white  sail 
boat,  from  the  direction  of  Santa  Cruz.  Look 
ing  down  towards  the  Chinese  village,  the 
couple  noted  that  the  junk,  lately  arrived,  lay 
no  longer  off  shore,  but  had  hauled  up  along- 


38  CHOY  SUSAN. 

sido  a  small  pier,  and  was  the  scene  of  an  ac 
tive  bustle  of  departure. 

Yank  Baldwin  adhered  in  the  main  to  his 
agreement  with  XUhoy  Susan,  but  could  not  for 
bear  throwing  in  some  favorable  words  about 
himself  and  his  prospects,  by  way  of  advancing 
the  affair  to  a  certain  extent. 

"  There  's  other  bisnisses  I  could  go  into,  of 
course,"  he  said,  "  more  settled  like.  There 's 
fruit  dryin'  and  cannery,  now.  Big  money  in 
it.  Or  I  could  pick  up  surveyin',  if  I  wanted 
to,  same  as  Easterby.  There  's  your  thermomy- 
ter,  you  know,  for  takin'  levils,  and  your  bar- 
omyter  for  seein'  how  hot  and  cold  it  is." 

Marcella  showed  little  interest,  but  was  fever 
ishly  excited,  in  need  of  movement,  distraction, 
forgetfulness.  She  wished  now  to  go  back  to 
the  Chinese  village,  and  witness  the  sailing  of 
the  junk.  Her  cavalier  wondered  at  her  taste, 
but  accompanied  her  and  gave  such  explana 
tions  of  things  as  he  could  find,  — few  of  them, 
it  is  to  be  feared,  accurate,  and  none  free  from 
race  prejudice. 

"  It 's  no  place  for  a  feller  to  saloon  his  girl," 
said  he,  in  contempt.  "  I  don't  see  what 's  the 
use  o'  comin'." 

Many  of  the  population  had  stayed  at  home 
from  the  fishing-grounds,  and  begun  with  the 
day  the  festal  season  of  the  morrow.  As  it 


CHOY  SUSAN.  39 

was  a  time  favorable  for  trade,  the  shop-keep 
ers  had  burned,  in  their  interiors,  old  clothes 
and  mock  money,  which  brings  luck  and  keeps 
away  that  useless  class  of  customers  who  come 
only  to  price  things,  and  not  to  buy. 

A  fantastic  drama,  as  long  as  the  moral  law, 
would  begin  at  the  theatre  in  the  evening. 
The  fane  of  Hop  Wo  was  freshly  decked  and 
adorned.  The  goddess  Tien  How,  propitious 
to  sailors,  had  been  brought  down,  however, 
and  placed  upon  the  bowlder  in  place  of  the 
usual  joss.  A  pig,  roasted  whole,  adorned  with 
ribbons  and  gilt  papers,  was  laid  reverently  be 
fore  her.  The  cabaret  was  dusky  with  smoke, 
and  loud  with  games  of  dominoes,  fan-tan,  and 
blowing  the  fist. 

"  Yet !  "  —  one  —  cried  the  players,  counting, 
and  throwing  out  fingers  to  correspond,  as  in 
the  Italian  game  of  mora. 

"  Two  !  "  "  Three  !  "  "  Four  !  "  —  "  Eng  !  " 
"Look!"  "Tak!"  "What!!"  "Sue!!!" 
"  Skip  !  !  !  !  "  they  cried,  and  rose  to  climaxes 
of  uproar  that  drowned  for  the  moment  the 
monotonous  whine  of  Ah  Wai's  fiddle  and  the 
clack  of  Chin  Moy's  ebony  sticks  upon  an 
ebony  block. 

Our  couple  came  where  a  schoolmaster  was 
teaching  some  children  to  kow-tow  decorously 
before  Tien  How.  He  made  the  quaint,  doll- 


40  CHOY  SUSAN. 

like  figures,  in  their  swaddling-robes  of  green, 
red,  and  yellow,  put  their  small  hands  together 
and  bow  till  their  small  foreheads  well-nigh 
touched  the  ground.  He  himself,  a  new  arrival 
and  a  man  not  without  courtliness,  smiled  be 
nevolently,  and  expended  upon  our  friends  his 
only  English  phrase,  to  wit :  "  Good-by !  " 

Choy  Susan  explained  to  them,  —  stopping 
for  the  purpose  as  she  bustled  down  to  the 
junk,  where  she  was  one  of  the  most  active 
with  bills  of  lading  and  the  like  in  preparing  it 
for  sea,  —  that  he  was  a  man  rather  above  his 
station  here.  He  was  one  who  said  philosoph 
ically,  — 

"  It  is  better  to  be  honored  among  the  small 
than  despised  among  the  great." 

He  had  in  his  cabin  the  Ju-pieu,  or  diction^ 
ary  of  twenty-six  thousand  characters.  He  had 
read  in  the  Chi  Kang,  the  national  book  of 
poetry,  in  which  are  heroines  like  the  willow 
seen  through  the  mists,  and  with  brows  as  arch 
ing  and  delicate  as  the  tender  willow  leaf.  He 
taught  the  three  thousand  proprieties,  and  how 
it  is  polite  to  offer  things,  but  more  polite  to 
refuse  ;  and  how  the  first  person  must  never 
be  used  in  address,  but  only  terms  of  deference 
and  compliment  to  the  auditor  instead. 

But  now  the  final  moment  had  arrived  for 
the  gallant  junk's  departure.  The  Good  Sue- 


CHOY  SUSAN.  41 

cess  and  Golden  Profits  cast  off  her  lines  ;  the 
peak  of  her  mainsail  was  hauled  up,  and  a  pen 
nant  loosed  from  her  upper  gear  bearing  the 
lucky  Yin  and  Yang,  male  and  female  princi 
ple,  and  another  with  the  legend :  — 

"  May  this  bark  brave  the  storms  of  a  thou 
sand  years ! " 

Marcella  and  Baldwin  found  a  favorable  look 
out  point  on  the  brow  of  a  rising  ground.  Two 
small  merchants  embarked.  It  was  said  that 
neither  would  trust  the  other  with  the  control 
of  a  venture  they  had  in  common  ;  hence  both 
of  them  were  going  together. 

Last  came  Ten  Moon,  hurrying  from  a  final 
trip  for  his  effects  to  the  Palace  Boarding 
House,  and,  embracing  friends  in  a  confused 
way  along  the  road,  tumbled  precipitately  on 
board. 

The  Good  Success  and  Golden  Profits  was  a 
vessel  of  perhaps  fifty  feet  in  length  by  fifteen 
in  beam.  She  had  a  great  rudder,  with  a 
carven  tiller,  which  served  her  partly  as  keel, 
her  actual  keel  being  of  small  dimensions.  Her 
propulsion  was  by  means  of  a  mainsail,  lateen- 
shaped,  and  a  jib  or  foresail,  both  so  braced 
with  bamboo  reefing  poles  that  they  lay  flat  to 
the  breeze  instead  of  bellying  with  it.  Such  a 
craft  might  be  fairly  good  before  the  wind,  but 
would  not  tack  easily. 


42  CHOY  SUSAN. 

A  fusillade  of  crackers  and  revolver  shots 
rattled  briskly  from  the  shrine  of  Tien  How. 
The  last  fervent  wishes  were  breathed.  The 
junk  drifted  off  shore.  Her  hardy  skipper  was 
seen  to  raise  aloft  three  cups  of  wine  of  rice, 
and  pour  a  reverent  libation  on  the  deck.  Then 
he  took  in  his  hands  a  live  fowl,  kow-towed 
thrice,  cut  off  its  head,  and  scattered  its  blood 
upon  silvered  papers  of  inscriptions  before  him. 
His  sailors,  assisting  in  this  important  nautical 
manoeuvre,  seized  these  papers  with  avidity, 
and  ran  in  haste  to  affix  them  to  different  parts 
of  the  ship. 

There  was  already  painted  on  the  vessel,  on 
each  side  of  the  prow,  an  open  eye,  to  spy  out 
dangers  ahead.  At  the  stern  was  the  Chinese 
phoenix,  Foong,  sitting  upon  a  rock,  defying 
tempests. 

With  all  this,  if  there  were  now  no  Jonah- 
like  persons  on  board  to  bring  evil  fortune,  even 
yet,  it  might  be  felt  that  the  winds  and  waves, 
and  especially  the  wild  Sui  Tow  Foong,  or 
devil's  head-winds,  were  appeased  in  advance, 
and  a  prosperous  voyage  was  insured. 

But  all  at  once  a  loud  cry  went  up.  Un 
happy  Ten  Moon  once  more.  He  was  not  yet, 
as  it  seemed,  at  the  end  of  his  misadventures. 
Clumsily  in  the  way  of  one  of  the  sailors,  who 
was  running  to  affix  an  inscription  to  his  quar- 


CHOY  SUSAN.  43 

ters,  he  was  upset,  lost  his  balance,  and  toppled 
headlong  over  the  gunwale  into  the  sea. 

But  a  more  singular  thing  still  happened. 
The  outcry  abated,  and  not  a  hand  was  raised 
in  assistance  from  sea  or  shore.  The  ex-cook's 
countrymen  looked  on  in  entire  apathy  at  his 
fate. 

The  sail-boat  from  Santa  Cruz,  which  carried 
a  load  of  tent  apparatus,  had  reached  the  vicin 
ity.  She  changed  her  course,  —  there  seemed 
a  kind  of  vicious  snap  in  the  suddenness  of  the 
change,  —  and  ran  down  to  the  spot,  but  was 
not  in  time  to  be  of  any  avail. 

The  man  was  choking,  struggling,  sinking; 
he  would  surely  drown. 

Yank  Baldwin  bolted,  without  a  word,  from 
the  side  of  Marcella,  ran  down  to  the  pier, 
and  leaped  off.  He  swam  with  a  few  vigorous 
strokes  to  the  drowning  man,  soon  had  him  by 
the  collar,  and  dragged  him  unceremoniously 
to  shore. 

During  this  performance  a  clamor  of  differ 
ent  order  went  up.  It  seemed  to  have  rage, 
expostulation,  and  lugubrious  wailing  mingled 
with  it.  When  the  rescuer  reached  shore  it 
looked  almost  as  if  he  were  going  to  be  a  vic 
tim  of  personal  violence. 

"  Hang  'em  !  "  said  he,  returning  to  Mar 
cella.  "  I  thought  they  was  going  to  mob  me, 


44  CHOY  SUSAN. 

instead  of  offerin'  thanks.  A  sick  way  they've 
got  of  showin'  gratitude  !  " 

"  They  don't  believe  in  saving  persons  from 
drowning,"  she  replied. 

"  Oh,  they  don't?" 

«'  No  ;  Choy  Susan  says  they  think  there  are 
wandering  spirits  about,  waiting  to  drag  drown 
ing  persons  under  water,  and  that  they  revenge 
themselves  on  those  who  balk  them  in  their 
purpose." 

Choy  Susan  had  been  with  her  in  the  mean 
time,  and  told  her  something  besides,  that  gave 
her  a  confused  demeanor  in  presence  of  Yank 
Baldwin.  He,  on  his  side,  knew  that  Choy 
Susan  had  spoken  the  promised  word,  but  did 
not  know  its  definite  result. 

The  Santa  Cruz  sail-boat,  laden  with  tent 
equipage,  touched  shore.  A  ministerial-look 
ing  man  leaped  out  of  it,  and  raised  his  hands 
in  prayer  over  the  abhorrent  instance  of  super 
stitious  indifference  to  human  life  he  had  wit 
nessed.  He  seized  upon  Choy  Susan  and  took 
her  aside  for  a  brief,  earnest  discourse.  She 
explained,  when  he  had  reembarked,  and  some 
time  later,  that  this  was  the  Reverend  Samuel 
Snow,  of  the  Stockton  Street  Mission.  He  had 
come  to  put  the  Pacific  Grove  camp-meeting 
ground  in  readiness. 

"  He  talkee  my  be  Jesus  woman  again  and 


CHOY  SUSAN.  45 

go  back  Stockton  Stleet  Mission,"  she  said  to 
Marcella. 

"  Mytly  sell  him  lottely  ticket,"  she  added, 
in  a  hardened  way. 

The  rescued  Ten  Moon  was  rowed  forth  in  a 
small  boat,  and  again  deposited,  and  grudgingly 
received,  on  the  deck  from  which  he  had  just 
fallen.  The  Good  Success  and  Golden  Profits 
sailed  away,  and  was  slow  in  disappearing  over 
the  horizon.  She  would  cruise  homeward,  along 
the  hundred  miles  or  so  of  intervening  coast,  to 
the  Golden  Gate,  unload  her  freight  at  Yslas 
Creek,  and  make  her  next  trip  probably  to  the 
shrimpers  at  San  Bruno  Point,  twenty  miles 
down  San  Franc  IFCO  Bay. 

IV. 

THE  WRESTLING  OF  YANK  BALDWIN. 

"Oh,  they  don't,  don't  they?"  said  Yank 
Baldwin,  continuing  his  interview  with  the  in 
teresting  Marcella  Eudora  Gilham.  "  How- 
sumever,  it  don't  make  no  difference  to  me 
what  they  think.  I  'd  see  the  hull  bang  of  'em 
at  the  bottom  of  the  Red  Sea,  so  fur  as  I  'm 
concerned.  I  done  this  just  for  one  thing.  Do 
you  want  to  know  what  it  is  ?  " 


46  CHOY  SUSAN. 

Marcella  did  not  request  the  information,  but 
her  reticence  did  not  avail  her. 

"  I  want  you  to  marry  me,"  he  said.  "  Choy 
Susan  's  broke  it  to  you.  Bein'  as  you  took  a 
notion  to  look  at  'em  as  feller  bein's,  and  so 
on,  and  his  own  folks  was  so  skulkin'  mean, 
I  thought  I  'd  haul  him  out  just  to  please 
you.  Now,  what  do  you  say  ?  Will  you  have 
me?" 

He  stood  before  her  in  his  wet  apparel, 
streams  of  water  running  down  in  pools  about 
his  feet,  just  as  if  this  were  the  most  propitious 
of  aspects  for  a  wooer. 

"  Oh,  I  —  I  can't,"  she  replied. 

"  You  can't  ?  Why  not  ?  I  don't  say  nothin' 
agin  your  folks  any  more.  I  've  give  that  up. 
You  was  brought  up  so,  I  suppose,  and  can't 
help  it." 

"  My  father  would  not  let  me  marry  anybody 
but  a — a  Mormon  —  one  of  the  Saints,"  re 
plied  the  girl,  taking,  it  will  be  seen,  quite  a 
different  ground  from  that  so  complacently 
adopted  by  the  storekeeper. 

"  Saints  be  blowed  !  There  ain't  no  saints 
about  it.  Joe  Smith,  what  founded  'em,  was 
a  lazy  money-digger,  that 's  all.  Oh,  Easterby 
he 's  told  me  all  about  'em,  and  I  know.  He 
could  n't  make  a  honest  livin',  Smith  could  n't, 
so  he  pretended  he'd  found  some  gold  plates 


CHOY  SUSAN.  47 

with  hydroglyphics  onto  'em.  How  could  he 
ever  ha'  read  any  hydroglyphics  even  if  he  had 
found  'em  ?  " 

"  The  Urim  and  Thummim,  set  in  silver 
bows,  were  deposited  with  the  plates,  in  the  hill 
of  Cumorah,  and  by  the  aid  of  these  he  was 
able  to  translate  them." 

The  tone  of  the  young  woman  expressed 
a  most  fervent  devotion  to  her  creed,  yet  a 
shrewd  observer  might  have  fancied  he  dis 
cerned  in  her  countenance  a  trace  of  something 
that  was  not  wholly  rapt  fanaticism. 

"  Oh,  yes,  he  was  a  sweet  one,  Joe  was  ! " 
continued  Yank  Baldwin,  suffering  himself  to 
be  led  away  with  heated  sarcasm  into  a  side 
issue.  "  I  s'pose  he  got  all  them  there  other 
revelashins  straight  from  heaven,  too.  He  used 
to  come  down  to  breakfast  every  mornin'  with 
things  fixed  just  as  he  wanted  'em.  Got  one 
revelashin  tellin'  his  regular  wife,  Emma  Smith, 
to  shut  up  and  not  say  nothin'  when  he  took  a 
lot  more,  or  else  she  'd  be  cut  off  into  everlastin' 
fire  and  brimstun." 

"Verily  a  commandment  I  give  unto  mine 
handmaid,  Emma  Smith.  .  .  .  But  if  she  will 
not  abide  this  commandment  she  shall  be  de 
stroyed,  saith  the  Lord,"  said  Marcella,  quot 
ing  piously  a  part  of  the  exact  words  of  the 
revelation. 


48  CHOY  SUSAN. 

"  He  got  a  one-horse  schoolmaster,  old  Oliver 
Cowdery,  and  a  one-horse  lawyer,  old  Sidney 
Rigdon,  to  help  him  out.  He  did  n't  know 
enough  himself  to  last  him  over  night." 

"  Oh,  you  ought  to  go  right  home  and  get 
some  dry  clothes.  You  will  catch  your  death  !  " 
cried  the  girl,  as  if  for  the  first  time  remarking 
his  state,  and  thus  endeavoring  to  create  a  di 
version. 

"  Never  mind  about  that !  That 's  all  right," 
he  responded  morosely,  putting  up  a  hand  to 
wring  out  further  moisture  from  his  lank  locks. 
"  As  I  was  a-sayin',  they  're  all  a  set  o'  first- 
class  frauds." 

"  Joseph  and  Hyrum  were  martyred  in  Car 
thage  jail,  and  there  were  many  more  who  suf 
fered  for  the  faith." 

Still  the  keen  observer  might  have  detected 
in  the  fair  devotee  a  certain  evasion.  Was  she 
perhaps  only  fending  off  by  means  of  her  doc 
trines  a  suitor  with  whom  it  was  not  policy  for 
her  to  quarrel  outright  ? 

"  Oh,  what 's  the  use  o'  argying  ?  "  now  broke 
out  this  latter  in  a  final  way.  "  You  kin  b'long 
to  'em,  if  you  want  to.  I  s'pose  your  belongin' 
to  'em  can't  do  no  great  hurt.  But  you  don't 
mean  to  say  that  you  won't  have  me  unless  I 
jine,  too  ?  " 

The  object  of  his  pursuit  bowed  her  head,  in 


CHOY  SUSAN.  49 

a  sorrowful  way,  as  if  this  were  indeed  her  ul 
timate  conclusion. 

"  Oh,  that 's  just  a  little  too  much !  "  cried 
the  storekeeper,  starting  off  indignantly.  "  That 
settles  it.  You  don't  look  like  it,  but  I  s'pose 
it 's  been  grimed  into  you  so  long  you  can't  help 
it.  — So  long!" 

And  he  tramped  away  in  high  dudgeon,  and 
put  himself  in  dry  clothing. 

He  hovered  about  the  Palace  Boarding  House 
again  towards  evening,  preserving  a  far-off,  re 
sentful  demeanor  towards  Marcella.  He  hap 
pened  to  be  in  her  presence  when  a  communi 
cation  was  brought  her  by  a  Chinese  messenger. 
She  clapped  her  hands  in  rapture  over  it,  and 
cried,  — 

"  Oh,  he  is  coming  !  he  is  coming  !  " 

"  Who  's  coming  ?  "  inquired  the  storekeeper, 
involuntarily  startled  into  the  question. 

"  Oh  —  a  —  that  is  —  my  father,"  she  an 
swered,  recalled  to  her  self-possession. 

But  it  was  curious  that  the  message,  if  from 
her  father,  should  have  come  by  the  hand  of 
Qum  Tock,  the  courier  of  Choy  Susan. 

Upon  this  circumstance,  Marcella  almost 
wholly  changed  her  manner  towards  Yank 
Baldwin.  She  begun  to  be  gay,  loquacious,  and 
treat  him  with  a  delightful  coquetry. 


50  CHOY  SUSAN. 

The  storekeeper,  quite  beside  himself  with 
rapture  at  her  fascination,  took  honest  Mrs. 
McCurdy  aside  with  the  request,  — 

"Say!  borrer  some  o'  them  there  doctrine 
books  o'  hern  for  me,  will  you  ?  " 

Mrs.  McCurdy  obligingly  borrowed  them, 
without  the  formality  of  asking  the  owner's  per 
mission,  and  he  trudged  away  with  them  under 
his  arm  to  his  tent. 

When  the  shades  of  twilight  had  fully  set  in 
that  evening,  a  bronzed  young  man,  alert  of 
movement,  short,  stout,  with  a  well-shaped, 
round  head,  and  a  bright  eye,  hurried  into 
camp,  threw  off  a  canvas  working-suit  he  wore, 
spruced  up,  and  emerged  again  almost  imme 
diately.  As  he  was  departing  from  his  tent,  thus 
improved  in  appearance,  Yank  Baldwin  caught 
sight  of  him,  and  hailed  him  with,  — 

"  Hay,  Easterby,  old  man  !  Back  again  ? 
What 's  the  news  ?  " 

"  The  Mexicans  are  quieted  down,  and  are 
not  going  to  strike.  And  I  've  got  a  leave  of 
absence  and  raise  of  pay." 

"  Good  enough  !  I  'm  glad  of  it.  Say  !  " 
approaching  nearer,  and  in  a  confidential  way, 
"  you  're  the  very  one  I  ben  a-waitin'  for.  I 
want  a  little  advice.  Say  I  there  's  a  Mormon 
gal  here  "  — 


CHOY  SUSAN.  51 

"  Not  now !  old  man  !  not  now !  Can't  stop, 
a  minute,  Yank.  I  've  got  business  on  hand. 
See  you  later." 

The  young  surveyor  threw  these  words  back 
over  his  shoulder  in  a  cheery  way  that  robbed 
the  repulse  of  its  sting,  and  was  off  without 
further  parley. 

Had  the  storekeeper  followed  him,  instead  of 
returning  to  his  tent  to  pore  over  the  strange 
books  of  doctrine,  he  would  have  seen  Easterby 
met  by  Marcella,  who  stole  forth  from  the  Pal 
ace  Boarding  House,  and  the  two  repair  dis 
creetly  towards  the  cliffs.  He  would  have  seen 
them  find  a  sheltered  seat  at  the  brow  of  the 
cliffs  where  they  were  well  screened  by  cedar 
boughs.  He  might  have  heard  them  set  to  talk 
of  earlier  times,  a  correspondence  interrupted, 
letters  that  had  miscarried,  misunderstandings 
that  had  arisen.  He  might  have  heard  argu 
ment,  too,  of  the  theological  sort,  and  inferred 
from  a  plaintive  tone  in  the  voice  of  the  young 
girl  that  she  was  struggling  anew  with  old 
doubts  and  fears,  perhaps  once  happily  resolved. 

"  Oh,  I  have  read,  I  have  thought,"  she  said. 
"  Can  you  be  so  sure  ?  Can  the  sufferings  of 
so  many  of  our  people,  the  blood  of  our  martyrs, 
have  been  in  vain  ?  " 

"  Blood  of  martyrs,"  replied  the  young  man, 
gravely,  "  has  been  shed  for  every  absurdity 


52  CHOY  SUSAN. 

under  the  sun.  We  are  left  to  grope  in  dark 
ness,  for  the  most  part,  —  Heaven  help  us  ;  but 
we  have  our  little  spark  of  reason,  and  it  must 
save  us  at  least  from  gross  impostures." 

The  night  was  comparatively  dark  in  the  ab 
sence  of  a  moon,  but  the  stars  cast  a  pale  glim 
mering  radiance  upon  the  water.  The  milky 
way,  scattered  in  the  heavens  like  breadths  of 
daisies  in  a  pasture,  stretched  from  horizon  up 
to  zenith,  over,  and  down  again.  The  young 
girl,  turning  a  thoughtful  face  up  to  it  from 
under  the  cedar  boughs,  said  to  her  lover,  — 

"  Ah,  when  worlds  are  so  plentiful  as  that,  of 
what  importance  are  we?  How  can  it  make 
any  conceivable  difference  what  we  do,  or  think, 

O   " 

or  are  f 

Her  companion  answered,  holding  a  hand  of 
hers  in  both  his  own  : 

"  Those  worlds  are  so  far  off  and  cold  and 
uncertain,  and  we  are  here,  and  warm  and  liv 
ing,  and  we  want  our  happiness." 

None  of  this,  however,  did  Yank  Baldwin 
either  see  or  hear,  for  he  was  wrestling  in  his 
tent  till  nigh  morning  over  his  uncouth  doc 
trinal  problems. 

The  pair  on  the  cliffs  heard  the  stage  come 
in  with  its  boom  and  rattle,  while  they  sat. 
When  they  parted,  presently,  in  the  friendly 
obscurity  of  a  thicket  by  the  Palace  Boarding 


CHOY  SUSAN.  53 

House,  Marcella  turned  to  go  within,  and 
Easterby  to  go  back  to  his  tent. 

A  door  opened,  letting  out  a  bright  light ; 
and  a  rusty-looking  man,  with  beard  and  shaven 
upper  lip,  stepped  forth  upon  the  veranda, 
clearly  revealed  in  its  illumination. 

"  Father  !  "  exclaimed  the  girl,  with  a  fright 
ened  intonation.  "  You  are  back  again  ?  " 

"  Yes,  where  have  you  been  ?  Erastus  and  I 
were  looking  for  you.  'Rastus  did  n't  want  to 
wait  no  longer.  The  ceremony  'd  better  be 
performed  to-morrow  noon.  I  feel  to  rejoice 
that  you  're  going  to  have  such  a  good  husband. 
Wa'n't  that  somebody  with  you,  just  now?  " 

The  Mormon  father  took  his  daughter  by  the 
arm  ;  and  they  disappeared  into  the  house  to 
gether,  the  door  closing  behind  them. 

liufus  Easterby  had  overheard  !  With  the 
alert,  energetic  manner  characteristic  of  him,  he 
now  changed  his  course  and  turned  towards 
the  abode  of  Choy  Susan.  It  was  not  yet  so 
late  but  that  she  could  be  aroused  ;  he  found 
her,  and  these  two  held  significant  conference 
together  at  some  length. 

A  damp,  raw  morning  of  fog,  not  uncommon 
on  the  far  Pacific  coast,  succeeded  the  winsome 
star-lit  night.  The  fog  caught  in  the  short  dry 
grass,  and  dripped  from  the  tree  branches,  shut 


54  CEO T  SUSAN. 

out  the  water,  veiled  the  cliffs,  and  gave  the 
looming  outlines  of  the  hamlets  mysterious 
shapes. 

Day  was  long  in  coming.  When  it  had  come 
so  far  along  as  breakfast  time  a  new  message 
was  brought  Marcella,  with  whose  own  mood 
the  heaviness  of  the  morning  was  well  in  keep 
ing.  The  missive  was  from  Choy  Susan,  in  a 
peculiar  handwriting  she  had  learned  at  the 
Stockton  Street  Mission. 

"  Choy  Susan  wants  me  to  come  over  a  little 
while,"  she  said.  "She  thinks  she  will  buy 
some  goods  of  us,  if  I  will  explain  them  more. 
It  will  not  be  necessary  for  you  to  go  ;  she  wants 
me  to — to  come  alone." 

The  Mormon  father  looked  inquiringly  at  the 
Mormon  lover,  —  another  rusty-looking  man  of 
the  same  general  pattern  as  himself.  The  lat 
ter  returned  a  glance  inclining  to  suspicion. 
But  there  really  was  no  good  reason  for  sus 
picion,  and  the  desire  for  profit  was  naturally 
strong  in  both. 

"  You  can  go,  my  daughter,"  said  the  father  ; 
"  but  be  brief !  You  know  what  is  to  take  place 
at  noon." 

Ah,  yes,  Marcella  Eudora  Gilham  woefully 
remembered  her  pressing  engagement  at  noon. 

Yank   Baldwin,  the   storekeeper,  had   over- 


CHOY  SUSAN.  55 

slept  himself  that  morning,  after  his  long  vigil. 
He  hurried  to  find  Mr.  Easterby  as  soon  as 
awake,  but  the  latter  was  not  in  his  tent. 

"  Never  mind,  then  !  "  said  the  storekeeper  to 
himself.  "  I  don't  want  no  advisin'  now." 

He  had  the  air  of  a  man  with  a  mind  inflex 
ibly  made  up. 

He  inquired  at  the  Palace  Boarding  House 
for  Marcella.  Mrs.  McCurdy  told  him  that  she 
had  gone  to  the  Chinese  village,  and  her  object. 
He  directed  himself  thither  with  all  possible 
expedition. 

The  Mormon  father,  as  it  happened,  heard 
this  inquiry,  and  observed  its  manner.  He 
chose  to  identify  Yank  Baldwin  with  the  man 
he  had  seen  with  his  daughter  the  night  be 
fore.  She  had  been  gone  well-nigh  an  hour, 
and  should  have  returned.  He  counseled  with 
Erastus.  The  two  put  their  heads  together, 
and  in  growing  apprehension  set  out  in  pursuit. 

As  Yank  Baldwin  went  along,  with  firm  front 
and  beating  heart,  he  fanned  his  purpose  with 
muttered  words. 

"  Oh,  I  '11  jine  'em,"  he  said.  "  It  comes  high, 
but  I  '11  do  it.  I  '11  jine  'em  and  git  her,  if  I 
bust." 

The  enamored  storekeeper  had  gone  over  to 
the  Moabitish  woman,  horse,  foot,  artillery,  and 
camp  equipage,  and  was  ready  to  embrace  her 


56  CHOY  SUSAN. 

faith.  From  time  to  time,  languid  airs  drove 
back  the  smoke-like  mist  from  the  edge  of  the 
water,  and  showed  a  single  milk-white  breaker 
coming  lazily  in,  and  the  gulls  and  pelicans 
standing  motionless  on  the  wet  beach,  in  which 
their  shapes  were  reflected.  Then  it  swept 
down  again,  and  swallowed  up  alike  the  pros 
pect,  Yank  Baldwin,  and  Mormon  parent,  and 
suitor. 

In  the  Chinese  village,  that  morning,  there 
was  rumor  of  something  unusual.  Choy  Susan 
had  been  seen  to  go  at  an  early  hour  to  the 
camp-meeting  ground  of  Pacific  Grove,  dressed 
in  her  gala  costume.  She  wore  a  wide-sleeved 
tunic  of  dark  blue  silk,  and  her  large  earrings, 
double  hoops  of  gold  and  malachite,  while  her 
black  hair  was  very  smoothly  oiled,  and  held 
in  loops  by  pins  of  gold  filigree. 

She  returned  presently,  and  soon  after  her 
came  the  Reverend  Samuel  Snow,  who  entered 
her  cabin  also.  It  was  bruited  among  her  fel 
low  countrymen  that  she  was  to  go  back  to  the 
Christian  faith,  as  the  result  of  yesterday's  con 
ference  with  the  minister.  The  girl,  Marcella, 
who  now  arrived  and  entered  in  her  turn,  was 
no  doubt  to  be  a  witness  to  the  ceremony.  The 
young  man,  Easterby,  who  came  next,  was  prob 
ably  another. 


CHOY  SUSAN.  57 

Excitement  grew  apace.  Heads  were  laid  to 
gether;  then  a  crowd  assembled  around  Choy 
Susan's  closed  door.  When  Yank  Baldwin  ar 
rived,  the  morose  parrot,  Tong,  was  pouring  out 
upon  them  his  choicest  vocabulary  of  abuse. 

Yank  Baldwin  pushed  his  way  hastily  through 
the  crowd  and  knocked  at  the  door.  It  was 
not  opened  immediately,  and  he  knocked  again. 
Marcella  herself  set  it  ajar,  wearing  a  peculiarly 
shy  and  blushing  air.  The  moment  he  saw  her, 
he  began  impetuously,  — 

"I'll  jine.  I'llVlong  to  'em.  You  kin 
have  me.  You  kin  have  it  all  your  own  way. 
I  '11 "  — 

But  further  speech  seemed  to  stick  in  his 
throat.  The  door  was  now  thrown  widely  open. 
Beside  Marcella  Eudora  Gilharn  appeared,  with 
smiling  face,  Rufus  D.  Easterby.  Behind  him 
appeared  the  Rev.  Samuel  Snow,  and  behind 
the  Rev.  Samuel  Snow,  Choy  Susan.  All  had 
a  significant  air.  Something  unusual  had  cer 
tainly  happened. 

"  My  wife,  old  man  ! "  exclaimed  Easterby, 
pulling  him  sociably  forward. 

"  Holy  smoke !  "  cried  the  astounded  store 
keeper.  "  You  hain't  turned  Mormon  ?  " 

"  Not  in  the  least.  She  's  as  good  a  Gentile 
as  any  of  us.  She  had  to  keep  quiet  a  bit, 
that  's  all." 


58  CHOY  SUSAN. 

"Well,  carry  me  out,  and  put  me  away  in 
some  orphin  asylum!"  said  Yank  Baldwin,  in 
a  state  of  utter  collapse.  He  directed  upon  the 
illusive  fair  one,  all  of  whose  duplicity  was  at 
last  exposed,  a  glance  of  meaning  too  deep  for 
words. 

"  It 's  all  Choy  Susan's  doing,"  said  Easterby, 
extending  a  friendly  hand  to  the  interpreter. 

"And  we  hope  Choy  Susan  will  come  and 
live  with  us,  when  we  settle  down,"  added  Mar- 
cella  sweetly,  not  unwilling,  perhaps,  to  with 
draw  attention  from  the  more  exciting  issue. 

Panting  through  the  fog,  at  the  same  mo 
ment,  came  a  Mormon  father  and  Mormon 
lover,  with  foreboding  of  ill  written  upon  their 
faces. 


THE  BATTLE   OF   BUNKERLOO. 


THE  battle  of  Bunkerloo  was  fought  one 
beautiful  Saturday  afternoon  in  April,  now 
some  years  ago. 

It  was  fought  on  Saturday  because  there  was 
no  school  that  day.  It  was  fought  in  the  after 
noon  rather  than  the  morning,  because  the  sis 
ter  of  one  of  the  commanders-in-chief  wa^  tak 
ing  her  music  lesson  in  the  morning,  and  the 
hostilities,  then  begun,  had  had  to  be  postponed 
in  deference  to  the  indignation  of  her  professor, 
who  had  jumped  from  his  chair  six  inches  at 
every  shot,  and  insisted  upon  the  conclusion  of 
an  armistice. 

Besides,  the  naval  preparations  were  not  al 
together  completed,  so  that  delay  was  just  as 
well  or  better.  These  preparations  consisted 
mainly  in  sinking  a  large  shallow  tin  bath-tub 
to  the  level  of  the  surface  of  the  garden-plot ; 
and  upon  this  the  fleets  of  the  two  high  con 
tending  powers  were  set  afloat  and  cleared  for 
action. 

The  site  was  eminently  adapted  already  for 


60  THE  BATTLE  OF  BUNKERLOO. 

the  military  manoeuvres.  It  was  a  level  plain 
some  six  feet  by  twelve  in  extent.  One  of  the 
sides  was  closed  in  by  a  heavy  wood,  a  border 
of  box  which  separated  it  from  the  walk.  To 
the  right  a  flight  of  stairs  led  to  a  piazza  opened 
upon  by  the  parlor  windows  ;  to  the  left  were 
stone  steps  leading  down  to  a  low  kitchen  area. 
The  fourth  side  was  closed  by  the  kitchen  area 
itself,  from  which  the  movements  could  be  con 
ducted  with  great  facility  and  without  stoop 
ing  ;  while  the  kitchen  range  was  close  at  hand, 
in  which  to  heat  the  pokers  with  which  it  was 
the  practice  of  the  artillerymen  to  touch  off 
their  guns.  The  earth  was  warm  and  dry,  and 
about  to  be  spaded  up  for  a  plantation  of  hya 
cinths,  roses,  and  geraniums,  which  had  been 
kept  in  pots  in  the  house  in  a  hectic  way  all 
winter. 

This  battle  was  not  an  isolated  event,  but 
was  the  culmination  of  a  series  of  large  move 
ments  which  had  been  in  progress  ever  since 
Christmas.  At  that  time,  by  a  coincidence, 
both  Generalissimo  Bell  and  Commander-in- 
Chief  Jones  had  been  reenforced,  each  by  a 
box  of  lead  soldiers,  provided  with  cannon 
which  went  with  a  spring  and  shot  peas.  The 
two  commanders  lived  in  the  same  city  block, 
and  the  war  was  carried  on  sometimes  at  the 
house  of  one,  sometimes  at  the  other.  Finally 


THE  BATTLE  OF  BUNKERLOO.  61 

this  sport  was  thought  monotonous,  the  soldiers 
being  only  knocked  down  without  injury,  and 
remaining  ready  to  be  set  up  again  as  good  as 
ever. 

The  idea  then  occurred  to  Master  Bell  to 
inaugurate  a  grand  out-of-door  battle  with  real 
powder  and  shot.  To  make  it  the  more  excit 
ing,  their  boats  of  various  kinds  were  to  be  con 
tributed  to  the  havoc.  The  fleet  of  the  Jones 
boy  was  superior  in  numbers,  tonnage,  and 
weight  of  metal.  He  had  a  full-rigged  ship 
which  had  been  drawn  by  his  father  at  a 
church  fair,  and  a  frigate,  several  gunboats, 
and  miscellaneous  cruisers,  whittled  out  by 
himself. 

Master  Bell  had  but  a  single  schooner ;  but 
she  was  commanded,  in  his  fancy,  by  Captain 
Kidd  and  Lord  Nelson  in  turn.  He  delighted 
to  imagine  her  now  the  Victory  or  the  Fight 
ing  Teme*raire,  now  one  of  those  deft,  long,  low, 
black,  rakish-looking  craft,  such  as  used  to  go 
a  buccaneering  on  the  Spanish  main.  Lord 
Nelson,  or  Captain  Kidd,  as  the  case  might  be, 
was  a  wooden  figure  carven  out  with  a  jack- 
knife,  and  represented  with  tarpaulin  hat,  tele 
scope,  and  a  huge  cutlass. 

On  the  other  hand,  Bell's  army  was  much 
the  more  formidable.  He  could  throw  into  the 
field  a  box  and  a  half  of  lead  infantry,  half  a 


62  THE  BATTLE  OF  BUNKERLOO. 

box  of  cavalry,  a  heavy  squad  of  wooden  gren 
adiers,  a  tolerably  complete  Noah's  ark  of  ani 
mals,  and  a  host  of  empty  thread  and  silk 
spools  which  did  duty,  in  his  fancy,  for  an  up 
rising  of  volunteers  in  a  grand  national  move 
ment. 

The  Jones  boy's  regulars,  aside  from  a  single 
newer  division,  were  a  dilapidated  lot  of  vet 
erans,  English,  French,  Turks,  and  Russians, 
from  an  old  series  belonging  to  the  Crimean 
war. 

To  more  fairly  equalize  this  condition  of 
things,  a  portion  of  Bell's  volunteers  were 
transferred  to  Jones  under  the  fiction  of  a  de 
sertion.  They  were  commanded  by  a  thick* 
set,  disreputable  -  looking  leader,  whom  Bell 
gibbeted  upon  a  scaffold  of  undying  infamy  as 
Benedict  Arnold. 

It  was  stipulated  also  that  but  two  of  Jones' 
ships  were  to  be  brought  into  action,  while 
Bell's  small  flag-ship  was  to  be  allowed  to 
steady  herself  by  an  anchor  on  each  side,  that 
she  might  not  be  capsized  by  the  recoil  of  her 
own  guns,  of  which  there  seemed  imminent 
danger. 

Two  rude  square  forts  of  dirt  were  thrown 
up  some  five  feet  apart,  the  guns  were  mounted 
upon  these,  the  men  posted  behind  them,  and 
the  action  commenced  in  an  irregular  manner. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  BUNKERLOO.  63 

General  Bell's  artillery  consisted  of  one  brass 
and  one  iron  gun  of  number  eight  buckshot 
calibre,  another  iron  one  throwing  tacks  and 
small  pebbles,  and  a  home-made  leaden  piece, 
which  kicked  farther  than  it  carried  and  was 
in  danger  of  exploding  at  every  fire.  He  had 
also,  in  reserve,  an  old  musket-barrel,  sawn  off 
half  way  to  the  muzzle,  which  could  shoot  a 
marble  through  an  inch  board.  But  this  was 
ruled  out  for  the  present  as  against  the  laws  of 
war.  And  indeed  had  Bell's  father  known  he 
possessed  so  formidable  an  engine  of  destruc 
tion,  he  must  have  been  relieved  of  it  entirely. 
The  musket  -  barrel  apart,  Commander  Jones' 
outfit  was  of  much  the  same  sort.  He  had, 
however,  an  old  pistol  -  barrel  mounted  on  a 
block,  which  he  had  lately  purchased,  at  a  great 
bargain,  "  from  a  boy."  The  following  account 
of  the  battle  may  be  relied  upon  as  correct  in 
every  particular.  It  is  prepared  from  state 
ments  of  eye-witnesses  and  of  the  commanders 
themselves,  together  with  an  inspection  of  the 
field  of  conflict  at  no  long  interval  of  time  after 
the  action  had  ceased. 

Up-stairs  in  a  front  parlor,  at  the  same  hour, 
were  a  couple  of  neutral  powers,  as  they  may 
be  called,  who,  before  the  battle  was  over,  found 
themselves  actively  engaged  also. 


64  THE  BATTLE  OF  BUNKERLOO. 

One  of  these  was  Miss  Sophia  Bell,  aged 
twenty,  elder  sister  of  General  Bell.  The  other 
was  Captain  Bradford  of  the  regular  army,  a 
friend  of  hers.  It  was  even  thought  that  the 
captain  was  more  than  a  friend  of  hers,  a  lover, 
in  fact,  and  a  suitor  for  her  hand.  To  tell  the 
truth,  that  is  exactly  what  he  was ;  though  the 
object  of  his  regards  was  positive  that  she  never 
had  given  and  also  that  she  never  meant  to 
give  him  the  slightest  trace  of  encouragement. 
He  had  a  way  of  looking  at  you  with  a  sort  of 
odious  caressing  devotion,  and  no  doubt  other 
people  noticed  it  too.  Then,  he  had  a  way  of 
always  doing  exactly  what  you  wanted,  and 
everybody  knows  that  nothing  could  be  more 
tiresome  and  stupid  than  this. 

Miss  Bell  was  a  wayward  young  person  who 
did  not  always  formulate  just  what  she  wanted ; 
but  she  chose  to  imagine,  in  the  case  of  the 
captain,  that  she  would  rather  have  him  con 
tradict  her  occasionally,  and  be  in  several  re 
spects  quite  different  from  what  he  was.  He 
was  not  at  all  like  the  other  men  she  knew. 
He  had  been  in  the  war,  and  come  out  a  brevet- 
colonel  of  volunteers  ;  and  now  passed  most  of 
his  time  on  the  Plains,  wherever  that  was.  She 
did  not  know  what  he  did  or  had  done  in  the 
army,  —  no  doubt  something  very  commonplace. 
He  never  said  anything  about  it.  It  could  not 


THE  BATTLE  OF  BUNKERLOO.  65 

be  at  all  like  the  soldierly  feats  you  read  of. 
He  was  straight  and  stalwart,  and  good-looking 
enough,  for  that  matter,  and  well  connected,  and 
knew  a  good  deal,  probably,  but  —  his  waltzing 
—  well,  you  never  saw  such  waltzing!  She 
had  made  him  understand  at  the  very  begin 
ning  that  it  was  ridiculous,  and  he  had  humbly 
given  it  up, 

No ;  decidedly,  there  were  reasons,  —  and,  be 
sides,  none  of  the  other  girls  in  her  set  were 
married  yet  —  and  then  he  was  over  thirty,  and 
besides  —  and  then  —  Secretly,  perhaps  Miss 
Sophia  Bell  did  not  exactly  know  whether,  in 
case  he  had  asked  her,  she  should  have  refused 
him  or  not.  This  is  what  occasioned  her  alarm 
upon  the  captain's  present  afternoon  visit.  She 
had  heard  some  report  of  his  going  away  soon. 
He  was  often  at  the  house  in  the  evening,  but 
an  afternoon  call  from  him  was  very  unusual ; 
and  everybody  was  provokingly  out,  taking  ad 
vantage  of  a  day  of  exceptionally  fine  weather. 

She  herself  had  just  returned  from  a  walk, 
and  was  glancing  at  the  general  effect  of  a  new 
toilette,  in  the  parlor  mirror,  preparatory  to 
going  up-stairs  to  take  off  her  things,  when  the 
captain  was  announced. 

She    gave  him   her  hand,    resignedly,    then 
poised  in  a  temporary  way  upon  the  piano  stool, 
turning  a  little  with  its  movement. 
5 


66  THE  BATTLE  OF  BUNKERLOO. 

"  You  were  just  going  out,"  said  he.  "  I  must 
not  think  of  detaining  you." 

"  No,  I  am  not  the  least  in  a  hurry,  —  that  is, 
I  have  just  come  in.  Please  sit  down." 

The  captain  had  passed  a  pleasant  furlough 
of  three  months  at  his  home,  near  hers.  He  had 
hoped  that  it  would  be  much  longer ;  but  it  was 
curtailed,  and  he  was  going  away.  He  was  sud 
denly  ordered  to  join  his  command  for  active 
operations  against  a  dangerous  predatory  In 
dian  band.  His  purpose  this  afternoon  was  to 
say  good-by  to  her  in  turn,  and  if,  —  oh !  if  there 
were  but  a  favorable  opportunity,  to  declare  his 
passionate  love,  to  tell  her  how  her  sweet  image 
filled  his  whole  heart,  his  whole  existence.  It 
mattered  not  what  was  to  become  of  him  in  the 
approaching  campaign,  unless  he  could  have 
some  assurance  from  her  that  she  would  think 
of  him,  —  that  she  might,  at  some  time,  at  least, 
if  not  now,  come  to  return  his  regard. 

It  was  vague  suspicion  of  something  of  this 
kind  that  made  his  companion  nervous,  and 
sent  her  for  refuge  to  an  additional  brusqueness 
of  manner. 

He  received  her  small  feminine  rebuffs  with 
the  greatest  patience.  He  cherished  a  secret 
misgiving  that  there  was  something  preposter 
ous  in  a  weather-beaten,  steady-going  old  fellow 
like  him  paying  his  court  to  such  a  dainty,  vola- 


THE  BATTLE   OF  BUNKERLOO.  67 

tile,  distracting  young  person,  in  every  way  his 
opposite,  and  ten  years  his  junior.  But,  while 
saying  that  he  was  no  match  for  her  of  course, 
he  persevered  doggedly,  perhaps  in  spite  of 
himself.  Her  tantalizing  waywardness  and  in 
difference  had  no  more  effect  upon  him  than  if 
they  had  been  but  so  many  manifestations  of 
regard. 

She  swung  this  way  and  that  upon  the  piano- 
stool,  and  poked  the  carpet  with  her  parasol. 
He  sat  stiffly  near  by,  hat  and  stick  in  hand. 

"  Will  you  excuse  me,"  she  said,  "  if  I  keep 
my  bonnet  on.  We  have  to  fix  our  hair  in  a 
certain  way.  This  weather  makes  one  so  lan 
guid.  I  believe  I  have  spring  fever.  I  took 
only  a  short  walk,  and  yet  am  almost  dead." 

"  It  is  very  becoming  to  you  to  be  almost 
dead." 

"  How  often  have  I  told  you  that  I  do  not 
desire  compliments  ?  " 

"  Yes,  it  is  true ;  but  for  the  moment  the 
temptation  was  too  great  to  resist." 

Presently,  by  way  of  leading  up  to  his  own 
errand,  the  captain  began  :  — 

"  You  have  read  some  account  of  this  late 
bad  business  on  the  Plains,  I  suppose,  —  the 
Canby  massacre,  in  the  lava  beds  ?  " 

"  No,  —  I  never  pay  any  attention  to  such 
things.  I  hardly  ever  read  the  newspapers. 


68  THE  BATTLE  OF  BUNKERLOO. 

As  to  your  Plains,  I  know  nothing  about  them. 
Why  should  I  ?  " 

"  It  is  a  great  country,"  he  returned,  depre- 
catingly.  Don't  you  ever  like  to  think  what  it 
will  be  when  it  is  all  settled  up  out  there?  " 

"  Oh,  I  do  not  like  to  think  at  all." 

"  What  do  you  like,  then  ?  " 

"Oh,  a  great  many  things.  I  had  rather 
talk." 

"  A  preference  which  suits  me  exactly,  as  I 
had  rather  not.  You  cannot  gratify  it  too 
much  for  me." 

"  Oh,  I  am  not  sure  I  feel  like  it  now.  But 
do  you  not  like  to  talk?  and  why?  That 
sounds  strange !  " 

"  Does  it  ?  Well,  what  I  know,  I  know,  and 
can  add  nothing  to  it  by  repeating  ;  while  others' 
talk  is  novel,  at  least,  and  may  be  improving. 
Is  that  a  good  reason  ?  But  I  am  glad  every 
body  does  not  share  my  view,  for,  if  so,  we 
should  make  but  a  melancholy  world  of  it." 

"  Who  was  the  second  usher  at  the  Battle 
dores'  wedding  yesterday,  —  that  dark,  fine- 
looking  one?"  Miss  Bell  asked,  changing  the 
topic  lightly.  "  He  was  too  sweet  for  any 
thing." 

"  He  has  lately  come  here  to  live  ;  a  cousin 
of  the  Battledores,  and  in  a  business  as  sweet  as 
himself,  —  he  is  a  sugar  broker." 


THE  BATTLE  OF  BUNKERLOO.  69 

She  made  no  comment. 

"  I  said  it  was  a  sweet  business,"  he  sub 
mitted,  deferentially. 

"  Well,  I  suppose  you  hardly  expect  me  to 
be  amused  with  witticisms  like  that,"  she  an 
swered  dryly. 

"  Oh,"  said  the  captain,  in  a  reflective  way, 
"perhaps  you  could  think  of  something  better." 

A  conversation  by  no  means  brilliant,  it  will 
be  seen.  An  uneasy  pause  now  ensued. 

"  Well,  I  am  going  away,"  began  the  captain 
again,  with  a  depressed  air.  "  That  is  what  I 
came  to  tell  you  about." 

"  Going  away,  where  ?  "  she  asked. 

"  Out  to  the  Plains.  Our  company  is  ordered 
there  at  once  against  the  Modocs.  But  pardon  ! 
you  do  not  wish  to  talk  about  the  Plains." 

"  I  do  not  mind  talking  about  them,  if  you 
are  really  going  there.  Do  you  expect  to  be 
scalped  ?  " 

"  Should  you  care  ?  " 

"  I  do  not  see  what  that  has  to  do  with  it." 

"  It  has  everything  —  that  is,  it  has  a  good 
deal  "  — 

"  Why  of  course  I  should,"  she  interrupted. 
"  How  you  would  look  !  Has  the  war  actually 
begun  ?  " 

There  were  at  this  moment  two  sharp  re 
ports  from  the  yard  below,  followed  directly  by 
a  third. 


70.  THE  BATTLE  OF  BUNKERLOO. 

Sophy  started. 

"  Yes,"  said  the  captain,  "  I  should  judge  that 
the  war  had  begun." 

"  Those  dreadful  boys  !  "  said  Sophy.  "  It 
has  been  so  nice  and  quiet  in  the  house.  Now 
we  shall  not  have  a  moment's  peace." 

"  Dodge  back  in  the  doorway,  Jonesey,  when 
I  fire,  or  you  '11  get  hit !  "  resounded  from  be 
low,  in  the  martial  soprano  tones  of  General 
Bell. 

"  That  is  what  you  must  do  when  you  get 
out  among  the  Modocs,"  said  she,  —  "  get  be 
hind  something  so  they  can't  hit  you." 

"  What  would  you  suggest  ?  " 

"  Oh,  a  haystack  or  anything." 

"  I  shall  bear  it  in  mind.  It  is  my  own  idea 
exactly.  But  seriously,  Miss  Sophy,  I  have 
sometimes  felt  that  it  makes  —  that  is  —  little 
difference  what  happens  to  me  out  there  unless 
you  —  care  about  it." 

The  girl's  cheek  flushed  softly.  To  hide  this, 
she  swung  half  way  about  on  the  piano-stool 
and  threw  a  hand  upon  the  keys  with  a  sudden 
jangle. 

"  What  a  silly  speech  ! "  she  said,  over  her 
shoulder.  "  What  difference  should  it  make 
whether  I  cared  or  not  ?  " 

"  Oh,  it  makes  every  difference,  all  the  differ 
ence  in  the  world." 


TEE  BATTLE   OF  BUNKERLOO.  71 

He  took  very  tenderly  the  other  hand,  dan 
gling  the  parasol  by  her  side. 

"  I  came  to-day  to  say  good-by,"  he  went  on, 
"  but  there  was  something  more  I  wished  to  say, 
also,  dear  Miss  Sophy  "  — 

"Now  it  is  coming,"  she  thought;  "what 
shall  I  do  ?  " 

There  was  another  loud  explosion.  She 
started  up,  pulling  away  her  hand,  as  if  she 
had  not  heard  what  he  said,  and  exclaimed  :  — 

"  Those  dreadful  boys !  I  really  must  go  and 
see  what  mischief  they  are  at." 

The  captain  followed  with  a  discomfited  air 
her  light  springing  walk  to  the  French  sash 
opening  on  the  piazza,  from  the  steps  of  which 
the  field  of  operations  could  be  surveyed. 

"  Repulsed  !  "  one  commander  was  crying, 
"you  must  fall  back.  No,  no !  you  cannot 
pick  up  men  when  they  are  once  knocked 
down." 

"  Everything  is  fair  in  love  and  war  !  "  replied 
the  other.  "  Besides,  some  of  these  were  kicked 
over  by  my  own  cannon." 

"  A  good  motto,  and  worth  noting,"  reflected 
the  captain. 

No  ingenious  stratagem  occurred  to  him  just 
now,  but  he  took  courage  to  await  events  and 
make,  if  possible,  another  trial. 

"  Come   and  see   our   fight,  captain,"  called 


72  THE  BATTLE    OF  BUNKERLOO. 

Master  Bell,  as  the  couple  emerged.  "  Come 
and  show  us  how !  " 

"  I  cannot  let  you  ruin  your  toys  so,  Jack," 
called  out  Sophy  sharply. 

"  This  don't  hurt  'em,"  said  Jack,  relying 
upon  her  ignorance  of  the  practical  operation 
of  powder  and  shot.  "  Come  on,  captain ! 
Don't  let  her  stop  you !  She  's  always  spoil 
ing  fun." 

"  I  have  a  certain  weakness  for  it,  even  on  a 
scale  like  that,"  said  the  captain.  "  Shall  we 
take  a  look  at  their  forts  a  moment  ?  " 

Not  to  give  color  to  the  assertion  that  she 
was  a  spoiler  of  sport,  she  graciously  assented. 
Holding  her  pretty  skirts  in  her  hand,  she 
tripped  down  the  stairs  part  way,  but  after 
pausing  there  a  little,  said :  — 

"  If  you  will  allow  me,  this  gives  me  an  op 
portunity  to  go  and  take  off  my  hat." 

"  Why  certainly,"  said  the  captain. 

He  looked  after  her  lithe  and  charming  figure 
as  it  disappeared  through  one  of  the  veranda 
windows,  with  a  sigh. 

"  What  nations  are  these  ?  "  inquired  the  cap 
tain  good-humoredly,  now  joining  the  boys. 

"  Rebel  and  Union,"  replied  the  bright-faced 
commander  on  one  side,  hastening  up,  with  his 
pockets  crammed  with  fuses,  like  a  miniature 


THE  BATTLE   OF  BUNKERLOO.  73 

Guy  Fawkes.  "  Mine  are  Union  and  his 
Rebels." 

"No  they  ain't,"  said  Master  Bell.  "At 
least,  it  don't  make  any  difference  what  yours 
are.  Mine  are  a  lot  of  different  kinds." 

The  Jones  boy  was  of  a  practical  turn  and 
little  invention.  His  fancy  could  no  farther  go 
than  our  own  late  civil  war,  of  which  he  was,  as 
it  were,  a  part. 

But  with  the  Bell  boy  it  was  a  different  mat 
ter.  He  was  a  famous  reader,  his  head  full  of 
notable  personages  and  events.  His  troops 
were  conscripted  from  all  the  exciting  fields 
of  history  and  romance,  and  heroes  of  the  most 
miscellaneous  complexion  marshaled  them  on. 
Thus  the  strange  spectacle  was  seen  of  the  Old 
Guard,  the  last  of  the  Abencerrages,  the  light 
brigade  of  Balaklava  and  Marion's  men  march 
ing  shoulder  to  shoulder,  with  Napoleon,  Ivan- 
hoe,  Kossuth,  Roderick  Dim,  Marlborough,  Judas 
Maccabeus,  Ethan  Allen,  General  Sheridan,  and 
the  Veiled  Prophet  of  Khorassan  at  their  head, 
against  a  simple  post  of  Boys  in  Blue  of  the 
period.  The  confidence  of  the  Jones  boy  in  the 
face  of  such  fearful  odds  was  something  almost 
sublime.  He  announced  his  steadfast  intention 
of  giving  all  comers,  be  they  who  they  might, 
the  liveliest  old  tussle  that  ever  was  heard  of. 

The  Old  Guard  was  a  tall,  stately  body  of 


74  TEE  BATTLE  OF  BUNKERLOO. 

veterans,  showing  profuse  marks  of  their  long 
service.  Their  uniform  was  a  red  coat,  yellow 
buttons,  well  pipe-clayed  belts  and  cross-bands, 
and  white  trousers.  Each  man  stood  upon  a 
round  pedestal.  They  had  been  knocking  about 
the  house  from  time  immemorial.  Contrary  to 
tradition,  the  Napoleon  who  put  himself  at  their 
head  was  a  tall,  splendid  grenadier,  chosen  for 
the  exceptional  freshness  of  his  paint.  He  was 
such  a  Napoleon  as  ought  to  have  been,  rather 
than  the  one  that  actually  was. 

The  Veiled  Prophet  of  Khorassan  was  a  dark 
and  mysterious  figure,  apparently  capable  of  any 
villainy  and  the  most  desperate  deeds.  He  had 
originally  been  a  lead  Robinson  Crusoe,  and 
served  in  the  early  part  of  the  action  as  Ethan 
Allen,  until  his  head  was  shot  off,  when  the 
present  happy  inspiration  was  thought  of. 

"  And  what  do  you  call  this  battle  ?  "  asked 
the  captain. 

"  Battle  of  Bunker  Hill,"  said  Jones. 

"  No,  Waterloo,"  said  Jack. 

"Suppose  you  make  it  Bunkerloo,"  said  the 
captain,  "  and  split  the  difference." 

"  All  right ;  but  we  want  to  have  it  like  a 
real  battle,"  said  Jack,  "so  one  side  can  tell 
when  it  is  beaten.  The  shots  don't  knock 
things  over  enough.  They  only  kick  up  the 
dirt." 


THE  BATTLE  OF  BUNKERLOO.  75 

"Make  the  earthworks  lighter,"  said  the  cap 
tain.  "  Then,  after  you  have  bombarded  awhile, 
let  one  side  sally  forth  and  charge  the  position 
of  the  other." 

"But  how  can  it?  the  men  can't  move." 

"  Put  them  forward  so  far  at  a  time !  Say 
the  distance  between  you  is  a  mile,  as  it  was 
between  our  men  on  Cemetery  Ridge  and  the 
Confederates  on  Seminary  Ridge,  at  Gettys 
burg.  Suppose  it  takes  about  twenty  minutes 
to  get  over  that  ground.  It  takes  you  about  a 
minute  each  to  load  and  fire  one  of  your  guns. 
Divide  the  space  into  twenty  parts,  and  let  the 
charging  column  be  advanced  one  space  after 
each  broadside.  You  can  imagine  they  have 
run  that  far.  They  must  drag  their  artillery 
with  them,  and  fire  at  the  enemy's  position  as 
they  go.  Then,  if  they  are  all  knocked  down, 
the  enemy  must  rush  out  in  turn  and  attack 
their  works,  where  a  reserve  will  be  left.  But 
if  a  considerable  number  reach  the  enemy's  fort, 
you  can  call  it  captured,  if  you  like." 

The  captain  took  a  case-knife  and  began  to 
show  them  with  his  own  hands  how  to  construct 
their  redoubts. 

"  This  is  the  way  it  was  at  Gettysburg,"  said 
he,  gossiping  as  he  worked.  "  Here  was  Round 
Top,  at  the  extreme  left  of  our  line,  and  here 
was  Little  Round  Top.  The  Confederates  nearly 


76  THE  BATTLE  OF  BUNKERLOO. 

got  us  here.  The  ground  was  low  between  — 
you  see.  Sickles  was  thrown  forward  to  the 
line  of  the  Chambersburg  road,  where  it  is  high 
again,  but  that  was  a  mistake.  Longstreet 
flanked  us  —  so  —  we  will  say.  The  fighting 
took  place  mostly  in  a  peach-orchard  and  corn 
field.  How  many  lives  do  you  suppose  were 
lost  in  that  particular  peach-orchard  ?  " 

"A  hundred  thousand,"  said  Master  Jack, 
boldly. 

"  Not  quite  so  bad  as  that,"  said  the  captain, 
smiling,  "  but  at  least  five  thousand,  off  and  on, 
in  the  various  encounters." 

"  I  should  not  want  to  eat  any  peaches  out  of 
that  orchard,  would  you  ?  "  said  Master  Jones. 

Meanwhile,  Miss  Sophy  was  up-stairs  before 
her  dressing-glass,  holding  high  both  arms  in 
arranging  the  coils  of  her  dry  brown  hair,  which 
had  subtle  sparkles  in  it  like  gold. 

"  Shall  I  or  shall  I  not  ?  "  she  was  reflecting. 
"  Would  you,  or  would  n't  you  ?  " 

She  looked  more  than  once  at  the  hand  the 
captain  had  taken  in  his,  with  a  whimsical 
glance.  The  Plains  now?  Most  likely  one 
would  have  to  go  there  with  him  and  live 
under  the  belle  etoile,  like  a  gypsy  or  a  tramp. 
No,  decidedly  he  would  not  do. 

"But  the  worst,"  continued  the  captain,  ac- 


TEE  BATTLE  OF  BUNKERLOO.  77 

tively  shaping  away  at  the  earthworks,  "  was 
the  grand  attack  on  our  centre  on  the  last  day 
of  the  fight.  I  know  something  about  that,  as 
I  happened  to  be  in  the  middle  of  it." 

"  What  general  were  you  with  ?  " 

"  I  was  with  Webb.  It  was  Pickett's  divis 
ion,  of  Virginia  and  North  Carolina  troops,  that 
came  up  the  hill  to  charge  us.  I  remember, 
through  all  the  other  feelings  of  the  time,  a 
thrill  of  admiration  for  them,  though  they  were 
our  enemies.  It  made  one  proud  of  American 
courage  to  see  it.  The  cannonading  had  been 
such  a  roar  as  if  the  world  were  coming  to  an 
end.  Eighty  gnns  of  ours  and  a  hundred  and 
forty-five  of  theirs  were  playing  together  for 
two  hours.  All  at  once  their  side  stopped. 
Then  we  knew  what  was  coming.  Fifteen 
thousand  men  advanced  in  column  against  a 
place  where  we  could  station  only  about  six 
thousand  to  resist  them." 

"  Yes,  but  why  did  n't  the  rest  of  you  rush 
out  on  both  sides  and  get  around  them." 

"  You  are  a  strategist,  my  boy  ;  but,  you  see, 
there  was  an  onset  at  the  same  time  all  along 
our  line,  to  distract  attention  and  prevent  re- 
enforcements  being  sent  to  any  particular  point. 
Nobody  knew  at  what  minute  his  own  position 
might  be  assailed.  That  is  where  an  attacking 
party  has  a  certain  advantage." 


78  THE  BATTLE  OF  BUNKERLOO. 

"  Could  you  see  their  faces  ?  "  inquired  young 
Bell,  his  eyes  as  large  as  saucers. 

"  Yes,  some  of  them,  in  spite  of  the  smoke ; 
they  came  close  enough  for  that.  They  had  a 
set,  terrible  expression  which  moulded  all,  even 
the  most  unlike,  into  a  certain  resemblance. 
They  seemed  to  belong  all  to  the  same  family. 
They  came  up,  under  our  hottest  fire,  to  within 
two  or  three  hundred  yards  of  us.  Then  the 
North  Carolina  troops  could  not  stand  it  any 
longer,  but  broke  and  fled.  We  captured  two 
thousand  of  them  and  fifteen  flags.  But  Pick- 
ett's  Virginians  were  older  soldiers  and  better 
stuff.  They  rushed  straight  up  to  the  top  in 
our  very  teeth.  It  was  their  faces  that  we 
saw." 

"  Where  were  you,  captain  ?  " 

"  Behind  a  stone  wall,  say  about  breast  high, 
on  the  ridge.  Up  they  came,  and  some  of 
them  over  it.  But  our  boys  were  plucky  as 
well  as  they,  and  we  had,  besides,  our  reserves. 
The  fire  we  poured  into  them  was  insufferably 
cruel ;  mortal  men  could  not  endure  it.  All  at 
once  the  foremost  ones  dropped  or  threw  up 
their  hands  in  token  of  surrender.  That  was 
the  end  of  it,  and  the  high-water  mark  of  the 
rebellion.  That  night  Lee  was  in  full  retreat." 

"  Oh,  it  was  splendid,"  cried  the  boy,  with 
glistening  eyes.  "  That 's  what  I  want  to  be, 


THE  BATTLE  OF  BUNKERLOO.  79 

a  soldier.  Oh,  I  hope  there  will  be  another 
war  when  I  grow  up.  Don't  you  think  there 
will  be,  captain  ?  " 

"  I  certainly  hope  not,  my  boy.  It  is  poor 
business  to  set  honest  men  to  cutting  one  an 
other's  throats.  There  will  be  much  better 
work  for  that  bright  little  head  of  yours  to 
do." 

Above,  on  the  veranda,  at  the  same  instant, 
was   Sophy.     She  listened  to   this   story  with 
bated  breath,  and,  in  the  end,  with  eyes  shin 
ing  not  less  than  those  of  the  boys.     She  had 
paused  in  surprise,  on  coming  down,  at  noting 
the   unusual  animation   in   Captain  Bradford's 
voice,  and  had  even  caught  a  glimpse  of  a  cer 
tain  martial  straightening  in  his  form  and  un 
wonted  flush  in  his  cheek,  as  he  stood,  case- 
knife  in  hand,  above  the  miniature  earthworks. 
And  this  was  the  man  she  had  thought  so  tame 
and  commonplace,  this  brave  and  modest  sol 
dier,  simply  because  he  had  not  spoken  of  his 
prowess,  never  vaunted  the  momentous  deeds  of 
which  he  had  been  a  witness  and  a  heroic  part. 
Who    of   all    the  other,   perfumed,   waltzing 
acquaintances    would    have    encountered    such 
deadly    perils  ?      One   might   lean  with   confi 
dence  upon  so  strong  an  arm,  with  the  kindly 
heart  there  was  behind  it,  and  be  measurably 
secure  of  defense  from  every  rude  blow  of  mis- 


80  THE  BATTLE  OF  BUNKERLOO. 

fortune.  She  would  go  with  him  now  to  the 
Plains,  to  mountains,  to  the  ends  of  the  earth, 
wherever  he  would. 

Thus  the  very  cannonading  of  Gettysburg, 
at  this  late  day,  had  weakened  another  and 
most  unexpected  fortress,  to  the  point  of  capit 
ulation.  The  gallant  captain,  far  more  fortu 
nate  in  his  way,  if  he  but  knew  it,  than  the 
gallant  Pickett,  had  stormed  straight  into  the 
citadel  of  this  tender  and  charming  heart.  Like 
that  of  Desdemona,  it  loved  him  for  the  dan 
gers  he  had  passed,  and  was  ready  to  surrender 
at  discretion. 

Still,  a  woman  must  not  appear  too  easily 
won ;  that  is  well  understood.  So  when,  look 
ing  up  presently,  the  captain  found  her  regard 
ing  him  with  what  was  really  fervent  admira 
tion,  she  pretended  that  it  was  but  a  casual 
interest  instead.  He  seemed  abashed  at  hav 
ing  been  taken  in  the  act  of  enthusiasm  over 
so  small  matters,  and,  abandoning  the  conduct 
of  the  war  henceforth  to  the  regularly-consti 
tuted  commanders,  he  came  up  and  rejoined 
her. 

The  field  of  Bunkerloo  now  presented  a  mar 
tial  and  spirited  appearance  indeed.  The  small 
plain  bristled  with  the  men  and  guns  arrayed 
for  the  conflict,  while  on  the  impromptu  ocean 


THE  BATTLE    OF  BUNKERLOO.  81 

floated  gallantly  the  navy  of  either  power,  cov 
ering  with  their  guns  their  respective  armies. 
Commander-in-Chief  Jones'  troops  were  drawn 
up  within  his  fortifications,  a  large  force  being 
prudently  posted  in  reserve  near  a  bivouac  of 
tin  tents,  at  a  considerable  distance  in  the  rear 
of  the  rest. 

Generalissimo  Bell's  force,  on  the  other  hand, 
was  marshaled  for  the  attack.  His  order  of 
battle  was  as  follows  :  A  line  of  silk  spools, 
two  deep,  extended  entirely  across  the  plain. 
Behind  these,  to  the  right,  came  a  division  of 
lead  infantry  in  two  brigades  ;  in  the  centre, 
the  wooden  grenadiers ;  to  the  left,  lead  and 
wooden  levies  of  many  a  varied  height  and  as 
pect.  The  cavalry  was  stationed  in  support 
of  either  wing.  A  numerous  body  of  thread- 
spools  was,  furthermore,  massed  as  a  reserve, 
on  this  side  also,  along  the  wooden  curb  of  the 
area,  nearer  to  the  fort.  The  artillery,  after 
having  delivered  several  rousing  volleys  from 
the  ramparts,  was  taken  down  and  set  in  the 
intervals  between  the  divisions  of  troops.  Gen 
eral  Bell  first  mentally  rode  along  the  whole 
line  and  in  a  few  stirring  words  fired  the  hearts 
of  his  men,  then  gave  the  signal  to  advance. 
He  did  not  at  once  disclose  the  objective  point 
of  his  attack,  but  strategically  made  a  demon 
stration  against  the  enemy's  entire  front. 


82  THE  BATTLE   OF  BUNKERLOO. 

While  troops  were  numerous  on  both  sides 
the  fun  was  fast  and  furious.  The  first  few 
discharges  of  the  artillery,  in  particular,  were 
harrowingly  fatal.  Bell's  elegant  dress  parade 
was  mowed  down  in  swaths.  A  marble  from 
the  old  pistol-barrel  cleaned  out  half  his  stock 
of  reserves  at  a  crack.  On  his  side,  in  return, 
he  found  means  to  elevate  his  pieces  and  fire 
them  with  light  charges,  so  that  the  contents 
dropped  down  upon  the  thick  ranks  massed  in 
side  of  Jones'  fort  and  destroyed  them  by  heca 
tombs. 

But  after  the  hosts  were  thinned  it  became 
more  a  matter  of  scientific  gunnery.  It  had 
been  stipulated  that  a  piece  should  not  be  fired 
when  the  men  behind  it  were  knocked  down 
and  so,  as  was  agreed,  hors  du  combat,  and  that 
they  could  not  be  replaced  with  fresh  ones  till 
the  other  side  had  all  the  regular  shots  that 
were  at  the  time  its  due.  Also,  if  a  gun  itself 
were  once  dismounted  it  was  not  to  be  further 
used. 

Each  step  of  the  way  was  hotly  contested. 
The  advancing  army  only  reached  the  middle 
of  the  plain  frightfully  decimated.  Ivanhoe 
had  fallen ;  the  great  Marlborough  was  down  ; 
Judas  Maccabeus,  one  leg  gone,  and  his  sword 
twisted  inanely  about  into  his  own  face,  pre 
sented  a  pitiable  sight. 


THE  BATTLE   OF  BUNKERLOO.  83 

'  At  the  middle  of  the  plain  the  lines  were 
rallied,  as  it  were,  and  reformed  in  more  open 
order.  But  the  very  next  instant  the  deadly 
old  pistol-barrel,  by  a  raking  shot,  unceremoni 
ously  laid  low  full  half  a  brigade.  The  fire  of 
all  the  invader's  field- pieces  was  vindictively 
concentrated  upon  it  in  return,  with  the  happy 
result  of  crumbling  the  parapet  about  it  and  dis 
mounting  it,  thus  putting  an  end  to  the  rain  of 
miscellaneous  material  it  had  been  so  ruinously 
pouring  out  ever  since  the  beginning  of  the 
fray.  The  breach  thus  formed  offered  a  favor 
able  point  for  the  assault,  and  the  quick  eye  of 
General  Bell  was  not  slow  to  seize  upon  it. 
He  formed  a  storming  party,  placing  the  Light 
Brigade  characteristically  in  the  lead  as  forlorn 
hope.  There  was  a  slight  historical  anomaly 
in  the  fact  that  his  light  brigade  did  not  consist 
of  cavalry,  but  of  infantry,  and  the  most  miscel 
laneous  of  infantry  at  that ;  but  they  were  gal 
lant  warriors,  all  the  same.  They  were  the 
survivors  of  corps  which  had  otherwise  been 
wholly  wrecked.  Each  figure,  in  the  battle  of 
Bunkerloo,  counted  as  a  hundred,  to  make  the 
totals  more  imposing ;  and  they  were  six  figures 
all  told,  to  wit :  one  wooden  sharp-shooter,  a 
trumpeter,  a  vivandiere,  and  a  zouave,  in  lead, 
and  two  silk  spools. 

Following  the  Light  Brigade  came  a  choice 


84  THE  BATTLE   OF  BUNKERLOO. 

body  of  leaden  Highlanders  of  most  steady  and 
courageous  bearing. 

The  matter  of  forming  such  a  column  in  the 
very  face  of  the  enemy  is  a  proceeding  attended 
with  no  little  peril.  Before  it  was  well  over, 
Kossuth  had  his  horse  shot  under  him ;  the  Cid, 
Ruy  Diaz  del  Bivar,  was  doubled  up  as  with  an 
aggravated  case  of  colic  ;  Zenobia  of  Palmyra 
was  blown  away  bodily,  and  only  discovered 
afterwards  in  an  ash-barrel.  The  cavalry  force, 
in  particular,  were  made  to  look,  as  one  of  the 
commanders  phrased  it,  like  the  breaking  up  of 
a  hard  winter  or  the  last  end  of  a  misspent 
life.  General  Bell  may,  perhaps,  be  criticised 
for  bringing  them  into  action  at  all.  This  is 
an  arm  of  the  service  to  be  used  only  in  accord 
ance  with  its  peculiar  conditions,  which  seem  to 
have  been  here  disregarded.  Still,  on  the  other 
hand,  circumstances  are  often  known  to  a  com 
mander  which  justify  an  unusual  course  of  ac 
tion,  which  may  not  be  known  to  the  military 
censor  and  annalist. 

The  gallant  Light  Brigade  buckled  to  the 
onset  in  the  manner  rightly  to  have  been  ex 
pected  from  their  traditions.  On  they  went  to 
the  breach ;  once  there,  the  opposing  guns  could 
no  longer  play  upon  them,  and  the  game  seemed 
in  their  own  hands.  Into  and  through  the  yawn 
ing  breach  they  went,  hauling  field-pieces  with 


THE  BATTLE   OF  BUNKERLOO.  85 

tliem.  They  reached  the  heart  of  the  enemy's 
works,  and  his  camp  and  reserves  were  at  their 
mercy.  A  wild  cry  of  victory,  in  the  mind's 
ear  of  Generalissimo  Bell,  rent  the  air. 

All  seemed  indeed  lost  on  the  side  of  the 
heroic  Jonesey,  but  that  commander  did  not 
yet  despair.  He  conceived  a  last  desperate  re 
source,  one  of  those  that,  when  told  in  history, 
send  an  unceasing  shiver  down  through  gen 
erations  of  blanched  and  horrified  listeners.  He 
fired  a  train.  The  train  communicated  with  a 
mine  which  he  had  secretly  prepared  during  a 
brief  absence  of  his  opponent  in  the  kitchen, 
and  the  exploding  mine  blew  the  entire  fort, 
and  with  it  the  invading  force,  to  smithereens. 
The  plain  was  one  vast  scene  of  carnage.  ',. 

And  now  the  contest  for  the  supremacy  of 
the  seas  began.  Lord  High  Admiral  Bell,  hot 
for  vengeance,  poured  a  deadly  broadside  into 
his  opponent's  flag-ship,  peppering  her  sails  full 
of  holes  and  sending  a  force  of  lead  marines  to 
the  bottom,  to  rise  no  more.  A  return  broad 
side  from  Commodore  Jones  split  Admiral 
Bell's  bowsprit,  and  cut  a  number  of  stays, 
allowing  his  foremast  to  assume  a  tendency  it 
had  always  had  to  wabble  sideways. 

Both  high  contending  powers  mounted  their 
land  artillery  as  well,  and  brought  it  to  bear 
upon  the  shipping.  Everything  presently  hung 


86  THE  BATTLE  OF  BUNKERLOO. 

in  rags  and  tatters,  and  every  movable  object 
was  shot  away.  Lord  Nelson,  however,  glued 
to  his  deck,  still  kept  an  undaunted  front,  like 
Farragut  in  his  shrouds  at  Mobile.  Commo 
dore  Jones  laid  him  alongside,  threw  boarders 
into  his  nettings,  and  seemed  about  to  lure  the 
victory  to  his  own  ensign. 

Now  again  ensued  a  contretemps  fully  as 
startling  and  dramatic  as  the  blowing  up  of 
the  fort,  for  which  catastrophe  Bell  had  pre 
pared  a  terrible  retaliation.  He  put  all  his 
surplus  powder  into  the  hold  of  his  schooner, 
battened  down  the  hatches,  and  touched  off  the 
whole  with  a  fuse  consisting  of  a  fire-cracker 
string.  The  invaders,  oh  where  were  they  ? 

"  Ask  of  the  winds  that  far  and  wide 
With  fragments  strewed  the  sea." 

The  explosion  that  ensued  blew  the  deck  out 
of  the  craft  thus  devoted  to  destruction,  maim 
ing  and  drowning  the  boarding  party  and  Nel 
son  with  them,  every  one.  It  created  in  addi 
tion  a  tidal  wave,  which  first  stood  the  enemy's 
fleet  on  their  beam-ends  and  then  wrecked  them 
all  along  shore. 

When  the  captain  returned  to  Sophia  Bell, 
she  was  idly  pulling  to  pieces  some  of  the  newly- 
swelling  buds  of  the  grapevine,  just  opening  out 
in  the  genial  spring  sunshine. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  BUNKERLOO.  87 

"  Why  have  you  never  told  me  anything  about 
all  those  doings?"  she  asked  him  in  a  nonchalant 
way  without  looking  at  him. 

"  You  have  never  asked  me,"  he  returned,  re 
garding  her  with  surprise. 

His  hand  chanced  to  be  near  hers  as  he  came 
up,  resting  it  on  the  railing,  and  accidentally 
touched  it.  The  soft  little  contact  gave  him  as 
it  were  an  electric  thrill,  and  he  broke  forth 
again  with  sudden  rapture :  — 

"  Dear  Sophy,  I  love  you  so.  Will  you  not 
be  mine?  I  will  devote  every  instant,  every 
breath  of  my  life  to  make  you  happy.  I  am 
going  away.  I  "  — 

"  You  must  not  talk  to  me  in  such  a  way," 
she  interrupted,  withdrawing  her  fair  hand  with 
a  show  of  indignation.  "  Where  everybody  can 
hear,  too  ;  the  idea  !  " 

"But  you  would  not  listen  to  me,  when  I 
tried  to  have  you,  where  they  could  not  hear." 
The  girl  moved  up  the  two  or  three  remain 
ing  steps  to  the  top,  and  threw  herself  wearily 
into  a  willow  arm-chair  with  an  air  as  if  she 
said,  — 

"  I  suppose  it  is  quite  useless  to  hope  to  es 
cape  this  man's  persistency.  Well,  then,  let  us 
hear  what  he  has  to  say." 

It  puzzled  the  honest  captain  not  a  little  why 
it  was  that,  if  she  were  so  disdainful  and  of- 


88  THE  BATTLE   OF  BUNKERLOO. 

fended,  she  did  not  go  and  leave  him  alto 
gether.  It  was  she  who  first  broke  the  silence 
that  followed,  asking  indifferently,  — 

"  Are  you  not  afraid  in  those  horrid  wars  and 
battles  ?  " 

"  Of  course  I  am." 

"Then  why  do  you  so  rashly  expose  —  I 
mean  why  don't  you  let  them  alone." 

"  Well  it 's  a  kind  of  occupation,  you  know. 
One  must  do  something  for  a  living." 

"  Yes,  but  supposing  you  were  killed?  " 

"  Well,  one  does  n't  exactly  expect  to  live 
forever,  you  know." 

"  Enemies  running  up  at  you  with  such  faces 
as  that,  arid  horrid  yells,"  she  said,  reflectively. 
"  Ugh  !  "  and  she  shrugged  her  slender  shoulders 
in  a  little  shiver  of  repulsion  at  the  idea. 

This  was  certainly  more  conciliatory,  but  the 
captain  was  only  kept  upon  the  subject  on  com 
pulsion,  wondering  at  her  interest  in  it,  and 
turned  off  from  it  with,  — 

"  Do  not  let  us  talk  of  that  now !  Let  me 
tell  you  how  beautiful  I  think  you,  how  dear 
you  are  to  me !  We  can  discuss  it  at  least,  can 
we  not?  that  can  do  no  harm  ?  " 

"  Yes  it  can,"  she  maintained  obstinately. 

"  Both  your  father  and  mother  are  on  my 
side,"  he  ventured,  exploding  a  bombshell. 

"  Oh  dreadful !  "  she  exclaimed,  starting  up 


THE  BATTLE  OF  BUNKERLOO.  89 

with  an  expression  as  if  surrounded,  desperately 
hemmed  in  front,  flank,  and  rear,  with  small 
hope  of  retreat  possible,  —  "  have  you  spoken  to 
them?  —  But  they  know  nothing  about  such 
things  —  nothing." 

The  lover  was  in  despair.  He  feared  that  he 
had  committed  a  hopeless  imprudence,  and  be 
gan  to  apologize,  — 

"  I  mean  to  say  —  that  is  "  — 

"  No  !  I  say,  you  must  not  talk  to  me  so." 

This  now,  as  it  happened,  was  the  exact  mo 
ment  of  the  marine  explosion  below,  which  had 
consequences  above,  far  beyond  anything  its 
authors  could  have  dreamed  of.  Fully  a  square 
yard  of  good  plastering  was  shaken  from  the 
ceiling  of  the  veranda  by  it,  and  fell  to  the  floor 
with  a  crash.  It  must  have  been  already,  for 
some  time,  in  a  defective  condition,  to  be  thus 
easily  displaced.  However  this  may  be,  it  fell 
precisely  upon  our  lovers  with  a  thump  and  a 
dull  roar,  staggering  them  and  enveloping  them 
in  a  dense  cloud  of  white  dust. 

Captain  Bradford  was  first  to  recover,  and 
saw  Sophy  leaning  against  the  wall  deadly  pale, 
and  heard  her  murmur  weakly,  "  My  head  !  my 
head !  "  Her  beautiful  hair  was  disheveled,  her 
entire  costume  in  disarray,  and  one  hand  raised 
to  her  brow  in  a  dazed  way.  He  flew  to  her, 
frantically  brushed  away  a  part  of  the  debris, 


90  THE  BATTLE  OF  BUNKERLOO. 

and,  taking  her  boldly  in  his  arms,'  supported 
her  within. 

"  Oh,  what  has  happened  to  you,  my  darling, 
my  pet,  my  pretty  one  ?  Oh,  I  hope  you  are 
not  hurt,"  he  cried,  as  he  labored  over  her,  most 
tenderly  bathing  her  face  and  hands  with  cool 
water. 

"I  feared  we  were  both  killed,"  she  said, 
soon  smiling  at  him  faintly.  "  A  weight  of  tons 
seemed  to  fall  upon  my  head,  but  my  braids 
saved  me.  I  am  not  hurt,  only  a  little 
stunned." 

He  was  holding  both  her  hands  in  his,  now, 
without  resistance.  Perhaps  she  was  not  con 
scious  of  it. 

"  Oh,  if  I  should  lose  you,"  he  went  on, 
"  what  would  become  of  me  ?  " 

She  was  dazed,  as  has  been  said,  and  this  was 
very  pleasant  to  listen  to. 

"  I  fear  I  do  not  understand  women.  It  is 
said  —  it  is  a  kind  of  proverb  that  they  say 
4  no '  when  they  mean  '  yes.' '  The  military 
man  let  fall  this  abstruse  intelligence  with  a 
simple  engaging  frankness.  "  They  do  not  wish 
to  appear  too  easily  won.  But  you  are  not  like 
that,  I  know.  You  would  not  wring  my  heart 
for  an  absurd  scruple,  a  petty  conventional 
whim." 

She  opened  a  shrewd  corner  of  an  eye  at  him 


THE  BATTLE  OF  BUNKERLOO.  91 

upon  this,  but  closed  it  again  before  he  discov 
ered  it.  Where  had  he  learned  such  a  pro 
fundity  of  wisdom,  indeed? 

"  I  can  never  think  of  you  as  easily  won.  I 
can  never  half  tell  you  how  I  adore  you,  how 
unworthy  I  feel  myself  of  you,  were  I  to  take  a 
whole  life-time,"  he  persisted,  borne  on  in  the 
fervid  torrent  of  his  wooing. 

"  Who  has  given  you  such  ridiculous  ideas 
about  women  ?  "  she  asked  him,  raising  slowly 
at  length  the  lids,  fringed  with  their  charming 
long  lashes  which  had  veiled  so  long  both  lus 
trous  eyes,  now  arch  with  laughter. 

She  closed  them  again  softly  the  next  moment 
and  added,  before  he  could  speak,  — 

"I  am  so  glad  this  has  happened.  I  have 
liked  you  all  the  time." 

A  heavy  shock  of  earthquake  is  said  to  have 
passed  unnoticed  during  the  ancient  battle  of 
Thrasymene.  So,  too,  our  combatants  of  Bun- 
kerloo  remained  all  unaware,  in  the  fury  of  the 
strife,  of  the  momentous  consequences  transact 
ing  above  them.  It  was  not  till  the  last  man 
was  exterminated  from  the  face  of  the  ground  — 
in  a  kind  of  supplementary  guerilla  warfare  — 
and  the  last  stick  of  timber  from  the  face  of  the 
waters,  that  Master  Bell,  running  up  to  inform 
the  captain  what  a  beautiful  success  it  had 


92  THE  BATTLE  OF  BUNKERLOO. 

been,  learned  of  the  fall  of  the  ceiling  and  its 
immediate  cause. 

"  I  wish  you  would  stay  here  all  the  time.  I 
wish  you  were  my  big  brother,"  he  said,  seizing 
one  of  his  mature  friend's  large  brown  hands  in 
both  his  own. 

"  He  wishes  I  were  his  big  brother,"  said  the 
captain,  turning  the  aspiration  laconically  over 
to  Sophy,  who  perceptibly  blushed. 

"  Run  away,  do,  Jack  !  "  she  exclaimed,  to 
hide  her  embarrassment.  "You  are  a  perfect 
sight.  And  I  hope  you  see  the  damage  you 
have  done  here?" 

Somewhat  dismayed  at  this  unlooked-for  de 
velopment,  and  perhaps  oppressed  with  graver 
misgivings  as  to  the  future,  Master  Jack  ran 
away  as  bidden.  He  endeavored,  nevertheless, 
to  see  if  a  few  finishing  touches  still  could  not 
be  put  to  the  battle. 

But  formidable  neutral  powers  were  now  con 
centrating  about  the  field,  and  active  interven 
tion  was  imminent.  A  younger  sister  of  ten, 
Hallie,  came  in  from  her  lesson  at  dancing-school, 
took  a  brief  survey  of  the  operations,  holding 
her  fingers  in  her  ears,  and  hastened  away 
promising  to  convey  a  full  account  to  Mamma 
at  the  earliest  possible  moment.  The  cook,  too, 
—  having  taking  advantage  of  a  general  exodus 
on  the  unusually  pleasant  spring  afternoon  to 
pay  a  brief  visit  to  another  cook  down  the 


TEE  BATTLE  OF  BUNKERLOO.  93 

block,  —  now  returned  to  her  kitchen.  She  was 
raising  her  hands  to  heaven  in  holy  horror  at 
the  condition  to  which  the  range  had  been 
brought,  when  Jonesy  skirmished  in.  She  cap 
tured  him,  and  would  perhaps  have  consigned 
him  to  the  Bastile  of  the  furnace-room  for  in 
definite  imprisonment,  but  that  General  Bell 
charged  to  his  aid,  cut  him  out  after  a  des 
perate  hand  to  hand  conflict,  and  set  him  at 
liberty. 

Jones  now  desired,  as  a  final  privilege,  to  be 
allowed  to  fire  off  once  the  old  musket-barrel, 
heretofore  reserved  as  against  the  laws  of  war. 
Its  ramrod  had  somehow  become  entangled  in 
the  bore  in  loading  it,  and  could  not  be  extri 
cated.  It  was  necessary,  therefore,  to  fire  off 
ramrod  and  all.  The  piece  was  aimed  towards 
a  dahlia  box  across  the  yard.  The  box  was 
split  by  the  discharge,  and  the  valuable  plant 
it  contained  thrown  into  the  air.  The  gun,  in 
its  recoil,  by  the  merest  accident  escaped  trans 
fixing  Master  Jones,  —  striking  a  corner  of  the 
door-jamb  so  hard  as  to  knock  out  half  a  brick. 

Master  Bell,  in  his  interest  in  this  shot,  inad 
vertently  laid  down  his  hand  upon  the  heated 
end  of  the  hot  poker  with  which  it  was  touched 
off.  It  was  with  the  lamentations  and  lively 
changes  of  posture  arising  from  this  untoward 
circumstance  that  the  battle  of  Bunkerloo 
finally  saw  its  close. 


DEODAND. 


I. 

ONE  day  there  sailed  into  the  harbor  of 
Washington  Island,  near  the  junction  of  Lake 
Michigan  with  Lake  Superior,  the  schooner 
Only  Son. 

She  was  of  about  two  hundred  and  thirty 
tons  burden.  She  was  painted  green,  with  a 
white  stripe  around  her,  the  paint  all  much 
battered  and  rust -stained ;  and  a  battered  old 
yawl  in  the  same  colors  towed  in  her  wake. 
The  occasion  of  her  putting  into  port  was  found 
to  be  the  hard  usage  she  had  met  with  in  a 
gale  off  the  Manitous,  the  day  before.  A  heavy 
sea  had  come  aboard  her,  stove  in  a  part  of  her 
bulwarks,  carried  away  her  flying-jib-boom,  and 
burst  out  her  mainsail. 

Washington  Island  lies  to  the  left  of  the 
beaten  track  of  vessels  eastward  bound,  and 
not  far  from  the  strait  of  Death's  Door.  A  pro 
peller  of  the  Union  Transportation  Company's 
line  was  formerly  in  the  habit  of  touching  there 


DEODAND.  95 

once  a  week,  and  no  doubt  does  so  still.  Other 
arrivals  were  rare.  The  advent  of  the  schooner, 
in  consequence,  drew  to  the  water's  edge  what 
few  spectators  the  port  could  furnish  in  the 
absence  of  the  greater  part  of  the  populace  in 
their  regular  occupation  at  the  fishing  ground. 
These  shaded  their  eyes  from  the  sun  and  gazed 
at  her,  much  as  the  occupants  of  a  farm-house 
might  have  come  to  their  door  to  watch  an  un 
wonted  traveler  on  their  lonesome  road. 

The  settlement  at  the  port  consisted  of  a 
cluster  of  cabins  on  a  hill-side ;  a  principal 
dock  or  wharf  upon  which  stood  a  warehouse 
and  general  store  ;  and  a  smaller  dock  support 
ing  a  row  of  small  fish-houses.  The  structures 
were  chiefly  of  logs  and  bark,  with  rude  stone 
chimneys.  Piles  of  cord-wood,  railroad  ties, 
and  telegraph  poles,  the  cutting  of  which  was 
the  industry  of  the  inhabitants  in  winter,  were 
a  prominent  feature  on  the  hill-side.  Along  the 
edges  of  the  main  wharf  were  ranged  in.  rows 
barrels  of  fish  ready  for  shipment,  and  others 
full  of  salt,  together  with  empty  casks  lately 
set  ashore  from  the  propeller.  Dock,  ware 
house,  cabins,  cord-wood,  and  the  bowlders  crop 
ping  here  and  there  out  of  the  dry  grass  in 
which  grew  columbines  and  bluebells,  were  all 
alike  of  a  silvery  grayness  imparted  by  long 
bleaching  in  the  elements.  Above,  but  con- 


96  DEODAND. 

nected  with  the  rest  by  irregular  foot-paths, 
stood  a  large  white  house  with  a  veranda,  the 
residence  of  Pardee,  owner  of  store,  warehouse, 
and  fisheries,  and  principal  proprietor  in  the 
island. 

Pardee  was  an  affable  person  of  thirty  or 
thereabouts.  He  had  been  a  particularly  jolly 
bachelor  up  to  a  recent  date,  when  he  had 
married  a  pretty  young  woman  eight  or  ten 
years  younger  than  himself,  now  with  him  on 
the  island,  and  had  settled  down  and  become  as 
sedate  as  could  be  desired.  He  lived  at  the 
island  only  during  the  height  of  the  summer 
fishing  season,  being  occupied  the  rest  of  the 
year  with  large  business  elsewhere.  The  house, 
during  Pardee's  absences,  was  occupied  by  his 
faithful  manager,  the  elderly  Mr.  Copp. 

The  Only  Son  made  at  first  as  if  she  would 
have  come  up  to  Pardee's  dock,  but  changed 
her  intention,  and  anchored  instead  at  a  little 
distance.  The  battered  yawl  was  drawn  up 
alongside  her,  and  a  thickset  man  with  coarse, 
faded  beard,  his  upper  lip  clean-shaven,  a  com 
plexion  like  leather,  and  wearing  a  waistcoat  of 
black  velvet  with  yellow  spots,  came  ashore. 

On  landing,  he  gave  an  account  of  the  mis 
adventures  of  his  vessel,  bought  a  roll  of  sail 
cloth  and  some  other  materials,  and  went  back. 
He  and  his  crew  were  seen  to  be  occupied,  the 


DEODAND.  97 

rest  of  the  day,  in  repairing  damages.  It  ap 
peared  from  his  own  statement  that  he  was  a 
Mr.  Mosely,  the  mate,  temporarily  in  command, 
owing  to  an  illness  of  the  captain.  The  cargo 
was  coal  from  Buffalo  to  Bluff  burg  for  the 
Benedicts  of  that  place.  The  schooner,  he  said, 
was  as  good  a  sea-boat  as  ever  was,  and,  apart 
from  the  mishaps  visible  to  the  eye,  she  had 
weathered  the  storm  as  dry  as  an  old  shoe. 

Towards  the  cool  of  the  afternoon  an  oldish 
man  with  a  limp,  a  portion  of  the  rim  of  his 
straw  hat  missing,  and  carrying  a  large  basket 
and  jug,  came  up  from  the  interior  of  the  island 
for  a  new  stock  of  supplies.  Something  famil 
iar  in  the  appearance  of  the  schooner  seemed 
to  engage  his  attention,  but  other  aspects  of 
her  caused  him  to  hesitate. 

He  went  into  the  store  on  the  main  wharf 
and  secured  there,  together  with  his  provision 
of  cheese,  molasses,  and  rye  flour  for  the  com 
ing  week,  what  information  was  to  be  had  about 
her.  When  he  came  out  he  seated  himself  on 
a  salt  barrel  and  looked  again.  A  light  of  sat 
isfied  recognition  this  time  seemed  to  spread 
over  his  weather-beaten  countenance. 

"I  belief   me   I   did    know   pooty  well    dot 

shooner.     She  was  de  same  old  son  of  a  guns," 

said  he,  looking  about  for  somebody  to  whom* 

to  impart  his  confidences.      The  schoolmaster 

7 


98  DEODAND. 

of  the  island  happened  to  be  standing  near  by, 
holding  in  his  hand  a  spy-glass.  He  was  a 
brown,  stalwart  young  man,  scarcely  less  rug 
ged  in  appearance  than  the  ordinary  fishermen, 
perhaps  a  little  more  neatly  dressed,  but  wear 
ing  the  conventional  costume  of  flannel  shirt, 
and  coarse  pantaloons  tucked  into  his  boots. 

"  You  think  you  know  her  then,  Abend- 
schein  ?  "  said  the  schoolmaster. 

"  Of  I  dondt  know  her,  I  gif  it  up,  so  help 
my  gracious !  "  returned  Abendschein,  with 
strong  energy.  "  She  bin  no  Only  Son.  She 
bin  dot  same  old  Lizzie  and  Lowesa.  She  can't 
fools  Moritz  Abendschein,  I  bet  you." 

He  got  up  and  joined  the  schoolmaster  and 
entered  into  other  particulars. 

Two  other  spectators  came  down  the  path 
from  the  large  white  house  above,  entered  the 
store  and  emerged  through  it  upon  the  dock. 
They  were  two  young  women  in  fresh,  pretty 
toilettes,  one  white,  one  pale  pink,  of  summer 
wash-goods.  It  was  Mrs.  Pardee  and  her  vis 
itor.  For  the  island  was  further  favored  just 
at  present  by  a  visitor  who  had  been  gallantly 
escorted  down  the  plank  of  the  Pride  of  the 
West,  three  days  before,  by  the  purser,  carry 
ing  her  shawls  in  a  canvas  cover  ornamented 
with  designs  of  her  own  embroidering,  and  had 
been  welcomed  with  effusion  by  Pardee's  young 


DEODAND.  99 

wife.  The  two  had  been  schoolmates  at  an 
Eastern  institution  of  repute.  They  had  ac 
quired  there  all  the  usual  accomplishments  and 
advantages,  mental,  moral,  and  physical,  which 
such  establishments  supply,  together  with  a  cer 
tain  stylish  air  for  which  it  was  rather  espe 
cially  noted. 

The  visitor  Bertha,  for  so  she  was  called,  had 
come  from  Bluffburg,  a  long  way  to  the  south 
ward,  in  response  to  an  invitation.  The  island 
was  an  unheard-of  place  to  visit,  the  writer 
had  said,  yet  most  eligibly  situated  for  some  of 
their  old-fashioned  talks,  and  when  they  had 
tired  of  it  they  could  go  back  to  the  mainland 
and  finish  the  visit  there.  The  old-fashioned 
talks  indicated  were  begun  with  great  vivacity 
immediately  upon  the  visitor's  arrival.  The 
couple  had  not  met  since  the  Wedding,  and  it 
may  well  be  imagined  that  things  of  momenjb 
had  transpired  since  then. 

They  twined  their  arms  affectionately  about 
each  other's  waists  as  they  stood  upon  the  dock. 
The  visitor  called  Mrs.  Pardee  Emma,  and 
pulled  and  pushed  her  at  times  with  a  freedom 
that  quite  astonished  the  schoolmaster,  who 
had  been  accustomed  to  look  upon  the  wife  of 
the  proprietor  as  a  very  stately  and  dignified 
person.  He  himself  thought  of  her  almost 
with  awe.  He  had  not  seen  the  visitor  before 


100  DEODAND. 

at  close  quarters.  The  proximity  caused  him 
some  trepidation,  and  he  had  an  unusual  con 
sciousness  of  the  inelegance  of  his  own  appear 
ance.  As  Abendschein  talked  loudly  and  made 
gestures,  the  ladies  glanced  towards  them.  The 
schoolmaster's  diffidence  was  not  sufficient  to 
keep  him  from  furnishing  them  a  piece  of  news 
which  he  thought  might  interest  them.  He 
stepped  forward,  in  answer  to  their  glance  of 
inquiry,  touched  his  hat  rather  awkwardly,  and 
said,  — 

"  Abendschein  says  it  is  the  Lizzie  and 
Louisa,  the  boat  that  ran  down  the  Allanadale 
years  ago." 

"  Oh  !  oh  !  "  said  Bertha. 

"  The  Allanadale  ?  "  said  Emma,  reflectively. 
"  It  seems  as  if  I  had  heard." 

"Why  of  course  you  have  heard,  Emma. 
That  terrible  case  !  The  Hallecks'  father  was 
lost  on  her.  How  does  the  man  know  ?  "  she 
asked  the  schoolmaster. 

"He  used  to  be  a  bridge-tender  down  at 
Bluffburg,  and  has  passed  her  through  his 
bridge  a  great  many  times.  He  says  if  he  had 
not  opened  his  bridge  in  a  hurry  for  her,  after 
the  inquest,  when  a  mob  wanted  to  burn  and 
scuttle  her,  she  would  not  have  been  floating 
out  here  so  quietly  now,"  replied  the  school 
master  with  an  air  of  great  respect. 


DEODAND.  101 

He  looked  at  his  interlocutor's  face  as  he 
talked.  He  thought  he  had  never  seen  any 
thing  so  pleasing.  Her  eyes  were  blue.  She 
had  a  round  chin  and  a  piquant  nose.  When 
she  talked,  her  short  upper  lip  showed  very 
pretty  white  teeth,  which  had  a  slight  opening 
in  front.  Her  brown  hair  hung  behind  in  a 
sort  of  twisted  loop,  tied  up  with  a  ribbon  ;  be 
fore  it  strayed  over  her  forehead  in  a  becom 
ing  style  for  which  the  female  mind  has  in 
vented  no  better  name  than  "  bangs." 

Women  were  very  much  out  of  the  school 
master's  line ;  he  thought  that  he  had  always 
had  more  engrossing  matters  to  attend  to.  He 
had  hardly  seen  any  others  than  the  feminine 
cooks  of  vessels  and  the  unkempt  islanders' 
wives,  and  scarcely  knew  whether  all  were  not 
as  hard-favored  as  those.  In  the  presence  of 
this  one  he  was  inclined  to  rub  his  eyes,  as  if 
at  a  new  revelation. 

Bertha,  on  her  side,  had  not  before  seen  the 
schoolmaster  except  at  a  distance.  She  had 
observed  him  passing  in  and  out  among  the 
gray  cabins,  now  with  a  gun  or  an  oar  on  his 
shoulder,  now  with  books,  covered  with  calico, 
returning  from  his  school.  Her  friends  had 
told  her  banteringly  that  he  was  the  beau,  the 
only  subject  on  the  island  for  a  flirtation.  "  But 
I  am  in  despair,"  she  had  returned  in  the  same 


102  DEODAND. 

spirit ;  "  for  he  never  comes  near  me."  She 
thought  now  that  he  talked  very  well.  He 
was  self-possessed  too.  His  diffidence  did  not 
seem  to  be  bashfulness  so  much  as  an  over- 
punctilious  respect  for  them. 

"  Why,  of  course,  the  Allanadale,"  said 
Emma,  "  what  was  I  thinking  of !  It  was  a 
perfectly  awful  shipwreck !  " 

"  Owful,  miss,  dot  was  it  so,"  said  Abend- 
schein,  taking  part.  "  More  als  drei  hundert 
peeples  was  gone  dead  by  dot  shooner.  Never 
did  I  seen  myself  such  a  times  in  dot  Bluff- 
burg  aus.  Of  Moritz  Abendschein  he  don't 
open  dose  schwing-bridge  so  quick  like  never 
was,  you  don't  see  dot  Lizzie  and  Lowesa  by 
Washington  Island  to-day  not  no  more  I  can 
tole  you." 

"  But  they  did  not  destroy  her,  it  seems," 
said  Bertha.  "  Where  has  she  been,  all  this 
time?  That  was  nearly  fifteen  years  ago.  And 
—  oh,  are  you  sure  there  is  not  some  mistake  ? 
This  is  the  Only  Son,  you  see,  not  the  Lizzie 
and  Louisa." 

As  if  in  answer  to  this  desire  for  more  ac 
curate  knowledge,  Mr.  Mosely  was  seen  again 
coming  ashore  for  supplies. 

"  I  am  going  to  ask  him,"  said  the  fair  vis 
itor. 

"  Bertha,  don't !  I  would  n't,"  said  Emma, 
deprecatingly. 


DEODAND.  103 

But  the  sprightly  young  lady  went  on  to 
accost  the  man  with  a  little  air  of  bravado,  of 
which  she  was  inclined  to  repent  the  next  mo 
ment  until  she  was  reassured  by  his  good-hu 
mored  reception  of  it. 

"  We  were  admiring  your  schooner,"  said  she, 
insinuatingly. 

"  She  ain't  much  of  a  beauty,"  said  the  mate, 
"  still  she  's  a  good  'un.  Her  lines  is  good. 
She  needs  overhaulin'  and  paintin'.  I  don't 
believe  she  's  had  it  done  for  a  matter  of  ten 
year." 

"  Have  you  been  connected  with  her  all  that 
time  ?  " 

"  Oh,  no.  I  only  come  on  a  couple  of  sea 
sons  ago,  since  she  bin  owned  by  the  Trow- 
bridges  of  Buffalo." 

"  We  were  thinking  that  this  might  be  the 
—  Lizzie  and  Louisa,"  said  Bertha,  bravely, 
"  the  one  that  sank  the  Allanadale,  you  know." 

"Who  told  you  that?"  asked  Mr.  Mosely, 
in  sharp  surprise,  glancing  keenly  around  him. 

Mr.  Abendschein  stated  with  a  chuckle  that 
he  had  found  her  out  ;  he  should  have  known 
her  among  a  thousand. 

"  Oh,  it  was  you  as  knowed  her,  was  it,  old 
party  ?  Veil,  I  guess  it  was  better  you  look 
a  little  out  mit  yourself,"  returned  the  mate, 
mimicking  the  broken  English  of  the  other 
rudely. 


104  DEODAND. 

His  manner  showed  that  the  facile  memory 
of  the  other  gave  him  anything  but  unalloyed 
satisfaction. 

"  Now  I  '11  show  you,"  he  continued,  "  that 
you  would  n't  know  her  out  of  a  thousand,  no, 
not  out  of  anything  at  all.  She 's  been  made 
over.  She  got  them  there  masts  in  Cork. 
There  ain't  scarcely  anything  you  see  there 
that  ever  belonged  to  the  Lizzie  and  Louisa 
but  the  hull." 

Inasmuch  as  the  vessel  had  been  recognized, 
it  seemed  strange  that  the  mariner  should  have 
been  inclined  to  go  into  argument  about  the 
matter.  His  irascibility,  however,  extended 
only  to  the  meddlesome  Abendschein.  To  the 
ladies  he  comported  himself  with  all  traditional 
maritime  gallantry. 

"  You  were  not  on  board  of  the  schooner, 
then,  at  the  time  of  the  —  a  —  the  accident  ?  " 
said  Emma,  gathering  courage. 

"  No,  miss,  but  I  learned  all  about  it,  pretty 
much  the  same.  I  helped  take  charge  of  some 
of  the  bodies  as  was  washed  ashore.  The  Lizzie 
and  Louisa,  she  was  n't  to  blame,  the  way  I 
look  at  it.  They  cussed  her  up  hill  and  down 
dale,  of  course ;  but  people  always  does  that 
when  they  're  mad,  the  same  as  children  kick  a 
bit  of  pavement,  or  anything  that  way,  that 
has  tripped  'em  up.  The  schooner  was  on  her 


DEODAND.  105 

course,  and  where  she  had  a  right  to  be,  ac- 
cordin'  to  law.  A  steamer  can  shift  when  a 
sailin'  vessel  can't.1' 

"  Where  were  her  lights  ? "  inquired  the 
schoolmaster  with  an  expert  air. 

"  On  the  pawl  bit,  so  I  've  heerd  say.  She 
had  a  lantern  there  with  a  green  slide  for  the 
starboard  tack  and  a  red  'un  for  port." 

"Do  you  carry  your  lights  the  same  way 
now?"  " 

"  Well,  no,  we  don't ;  we  has  'em  in  the  rig- 
gin'  now.  But  it  was  n't  no  question  of  lights 
the  night  the  Allanadale  was  struck.  It  was 
bull -headed  carelessness.  Everybody  on  the 
steamer  was  dancin'  and  carryin'  on  down  in 
the  cabin  —  it  was  a  excursion  boat,  you  re 
member,  miss  —  and  not  pay  in'  no  attention  to 
anything.  When  the  schooner  found  the  Al 
lanadale  was  n't  goin'  to  give  way,  it  was  too 
late  for  her  to ;  she  had  to  strike.  She  knocked 
a  hole  in  the  Allanadale  as  big  as  a  house.  The 
bowsprit  went  clean  through,  and  raked  the 
cabin,  as  it  heaved  about.  Some  was  crushed 
agin  the  floor  and  ceilin'  and  never  even  had 
a  chance  to  tumble  overboard.  The  water 
come  in  and  put  out  the  fires,  and  the  steamer 
sunk  inside  of  ten  minutes.  It  was  pitch  dark 
and  a  heavy  sea  runnin'.  A  thunder-storm 
come  on  with  all  the  rest,  and  when  the  light- 


106  DEODAND. 

nin'  flashed  it  showed  the  water  covered  with 
hundreds  of  drownin'  people  and  corpses." 

"  And  the  Lizzie  and  Louisa  went  right  on 
and  never  stopped  to  save  one  of  them  ?  "  said 
Bertha. 

"  That 's  what  she  did,  miss.  That 's  what 
made  the  folks  so  mad.  But  she  could  n't  V 
done  no  different,  I  say.  The  bowsprit  and 
bobstays  and  whole  head-gear  was  gone  out  of 
her,  and  her  masts  was  a-topplin'.  She  could  n't 
stay  there  in  the  trough  of  the  sea  to  help  no 
body." 

"  How  do  you  come  to  have  now  the  name 
of  Only  Son,  instead  of  Lizzie  and  Louisa  ?  " 

"  There  was  a  schooner  of  that  name  that 
was  lost  in  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence.  I  mind 
the  time  very  well.  We  got  her  name.  It  was 
done  by  act  of  Congress  or  act  of  Parliament, 
or  some  such  way.  You  see,  the  schooner  lit 
out  for  foreign  parts  after  the  trouble.  This  is 
only  her  second  season  back,  and  this  here  is 
the  first  trip  she  's  made  to  Bluffburg  since." 

The  aged  Abendschein  said  that  he  had  sup 
posed  so,  that  he  had  certainly  not  seen  her 
during  the  ten  years  succeeding  the  accident, 
while  he  was  still  tending  his  bridge  at  Bluff- 
burg. 

"  You  've  got  a  excellent  memory,  old  skee- 
six,"  said  the  mariner,  with  severe  sarcasm. 


DEODAND.  107 

"  You  want  to  be  particular  careful  of  your 
health.  You  ought  to  be  a-countin'  currency 
in  some  high-toned  savin's  bank,  with  plate 
glass  winders,  you  had." 

"  Do  you  ever  have  any  ghosts  aboard  ?  "  in 
quired  the  schoolmaster,  by  way  of  diversion. 

"Nary  ghost,"  replied  Mr.  Mosely,  and  upon 
this  the  conference  ended. 

"  Oh  —  a  —  what  is  a  pawl  bit  ?  "  asked  Ber 
tha,  turning  to  the  schoolmaster  as  he  was  about 
to  go  away. 

She  employed  with  him,  as  with  the  mate  of 
the  schooner,  a  manner  deferential,  yet  slightly 
free,  as  a  person  of  such  a  relation  to  herself 
that  there  was  no  fear  of  misconstruction  and 
freedoms  from  him  in  return. 

"  That  square  projection  on  the  forecastle," 
said  he,  pointing  it  out.  "  It  is  used  in  work 
ing  the  windlass.  It  is  no  place  to  put  lights. 
They  are  always  hung  in  the  rigging,  as  far  as 
I  know.  Besides  the  lights,  in  foggy  weather, 
a  horn  is  blown,  one  blast  when  the  vessel  is 
on  the  starboard  tack,  two  on  the  port  tack, 
and  three  when  she  is  running  free,  to  show 
where  she  is." 

"  Then  you  think  the  Lizzie  and  Louisa  was 
to  blame  ?  " 

"  I  do  not  say  so.  I  do  not  pretend  to  know 
enough  of  the  details.  There  was  an  investiga- 


108  DEODAND. 

tion,  but  of  course  in  such  cases  the  only  wit 
nesses  are  the  crews,  and  they  are  equally  preju 
diced  in  opposite  directions.  At  any  rate,  no 
proceedings  were  taken  against  her." 

"  But  of  course  there  ought  not  to  have  been, 
unless  it  were  certain  that  she  was  to  blame. 
That  would  have  been  highly  unjust." 

"  Yes,  by  our  laws,  and  now ;  but  there  used 
to  be  a  different  conception  of  justice.  Do  you 
recollect  about  the  old  custom  of  deodand,  in 
Blackstone?  This  rather  makes  me  think  of 
it." 

"Deodand?"  she  repeated,  puzzled;  "no,  in 
deed  ;  what  was  it  ?  " 

"  It  used  to  be  the  custom  to  confiscate  any 
thing  that  had  been  the  occasion  of  death, 
whether  it  were  to  blame  or  not.  It  was  called 
a  deodand,  supposed  to  be  forfeited  to  God,  and 
the  king  devoted  it  to  charitable  uses.  The 
destruction  of  human  life  was  considered  such 
an  absolute  and  inexcusable  wrong  that  ven 
geance  had  to  be  wreaked  even  upon  the  inani 
mate  matter  that  was  the  agent  of  it.  If  the 
thing  were  in  motion  the  whole  of  it  was  taken ; 
if  not  in  motion  only  the  part  that  was  imme 
diately  to  blame.  Thus,  if  a  man  should  fall 
from  the  wheel  of  a  wagon  at  rest  and  be  killed, 
the  wheel  alone  was  a  deodand,  and  not  the 
wagon." 


DEODAND.  109 

"It  is  like  what  the  mate  just  said  of  the 
children  kicking  the  pavement  for  tripping 
them  up.  So  by  this  old  custom,"  the  girl 
continued  meditatively,  "  that  dreadful  ship 
would  be  confiscated,  would  be  a  —  What  do 
you  call  it  ?  —  a  deo  "  — 

"  Deodand." 

"  It  makes  me  shiver  only  to  look  at  it.  Just 
see  how  stolid  and  unfeeling  she  lies  there  after 
all  the  suffering  she  has  occasioned.  I  would 
not  wish  to  sail  in  her  for  anything;  would 
you  ?  " 

"  Oh,  I  should  not  much  care.  I  am  not  very 
superstitious.  She  has  gone  along  now  fifteen 
years  all  right,  and  most  likely  will  continue  to 
do  so.  There  is  no  legal  way  now  of  collecting 
deodands." 

"  Yes,  but  perhaps  for  that  very  reason  they 
may  be  collected  in  more  at  headquarters,  as  it 


were." 


"  Is  n't  that  just  a  little  sacrilegious  ?  " 

"  Well,  yes,"  admitted  Bertha.  "  I  am  afraid 
that  it  is."" 

"  Oh,  please  do  not  think  I  take  the  liberty 
to  correct  you,"  the  schoolmaster  hastened  to 
say. 

He  looked  into  her  eyes  again.  He  thought 
a  kind  and  honest  heart  beamed  forth  from 
them,  gay  and  bright  as  they  were.  Bertha  too 


110  DEODAND. 

began  to  be  sensible  that  he  was  a  person  to 
be  put  upon  a  very  different  footing  from  Mr. 
Mosely. 

"  We  should  be  very  glad  to  see  you  at  the 
house,  at  any  time,"  said  Mrs.  Pardee  to  him 
graciously,  as  they  moved  away. 

It  was  his  first  invitation  from  this  source. 

"  If  it  amuses  you  to  talk  to  odd  persons, 
you  shall  have  what  slight  diversions  the  island 
affords,"  she  said  to  Bertha  when  they  were  out 
of  hearing. 

" How  much  he  knows"  said  Bertha.  " Tell 
me  about  him  !  What  is  his  name  ?  " 

"  Halvorsen.  He  is  as  much  sailor  as  school 
master,  or  more.  My  husband,  I  believe,  thinks 
him  quite  a  remarkable  character." 

"Yes?  in  what  way?" 

"  Well,  it  seems  he  has  educated  himself  some 
how  in  sailing  around  the  world.  He  never 
had  anybody  to  look  after  him,  and  never  went 
to  school.  He  studies  law,  of  nights,  and  has 
an  idea  of  making  a  lawyer  of  himself.  He 
sails  the  lakes,  usually,  to  get  the  money.  I 
don't  know  exactly  how  it  happens  that  he  is 
teaching  school  here.  I  think  he  was  di-sap- 
pointed  about  some  vessel  he  expected  to  get 
the  command  of,  and  is  only  waiting  for  that." 

"  His  manners  are  very  good  for  one  with  so 
little  bringing  up.  —  But  he  cannot  be  called 


DEODAND.  Ill 

very  good  looking,"  she  added,  reflectively. 
"  Where  is  he  from  ?  " 

"He  was  born  in  some  English  port.  His 
father  was  Norwegian,  and  his  mother  English; 
but  he  scarcely  even  saw  either  of  them." 

"  I  think  he  deserves  a  great  deal  of  credit ; 
don't  you  ?  "  said  Bertha. 

Before  morning  the  schooner  had  weighed 
anchor  and  continued  her  course  to  Bluffburg. 
Her  skipper  was  apprehensive,  from  the  facile 
recognition  of  his  vessel  at  the  island,  that  un 
pleasant  consequences  might  await  her  at  the 
port  of  her  destination  from  which  she  had 
been  so  long  absent,  and  where  she  had  been 
the  object  of  such  a  bitter  animosity.  But  this 
fear  proved  unfounded.  Whether  she  were 
identified  on  her  entrance  into  Bluffburg  by 
other  eyes  or  not,  the  only  active  interest  mani 
fested  in  the  ex-Lizzie  and  Louisa  was  from  a 
very  obscure  source  indeed.  A  squalid  vagrant 
known  along  the  docks  and  in  the  police  court, 
at  which  he  made  frequent  appearances,  as 
Hungry  Hagan,  followed  her  stealthily  as  she 
moved  to  her  moorings  at  Benedict's  wharf, 
hung  over  a  bridge  in  the  immediate  vicinity  ^ 
shook  his  fist  and  continued  to  regard  her,  mut 
tering  with  imbecile  malignity.  The  abode  of 
this  man  was  with  others  of  his  class  upon  a 


112  DEODAND. 

strip  of  sand  beach  once  the  site  of  fishing  in 
dustries.  The  sand  had  been  carted  away  by 
graders  of  streets  to  such  an  extent  that  the 
quarter  had  at  one  time  stood  in  danger  of 
being  engulfed  in  the  lake,  and  a  law  had  been 
passed  against  the  practice.  The  constructions 
of  a  great  city  pressed  close  behind  and  around 
it,  and  a  railroad  company  was  ready  to  take 
the  ground  for  its  repair  shops  as  soon  as  it 
could  get  a  franchise.  Tramps  and  disreputable 
characters  had  crept  into  the  abandoned  huts  of 
the  fishermen.  In  rags  of  the  yellowish  hue 
which  is  the  last  stage  of  old  clothing,  they 
sunned  themselves  on  the  beach,  caught  drift 
wood  for  their  fires,  and  begged  or  stole  a  sub 
sistence  as  best  they  could. 

There  was  a  tradition,  hard  indeed  to  credit, 
that  Hagan,  previous  to  the  loss  of  the  Allana- 
dale,  had  been  a  decent,  honest  mechanic.  His 
wife  and  children  had  gone  down  in  her,  and 
then  he  took  to  drink  and  general  abandoned 
courses.  His  besotted  faculties  all  but  gone  ap 
peared  to  retain  their  cunning  for  but  a  single 
object,  —  the  craft  that  had  been  the  author  of 
his  calamities. 

As  the  Only  Son  lay  now  in  the  river,  the 
chips  floating  past  her,  as  often  up  stream  as 
down,  in  the  sluggish  yellow  current,  and  ur 
chins  playing  about  her  in  the  neighboring 


DEODAND.  113 

wood-yard,  it  was  hard  to  connect  her  with 
the  wild  sweep  of  angry  waters  and  the  despair 
ing  struggle  of  perishing  human  lives.  Hungry 
Hagan  looked  long  and  malevolently  at  her 
from  the  bridge,  but  if  he  meditated  her  a  mis 
chief,  it  was  not  carried  into  effect  on  the  pres 
ent  occasion.  Before  night  he  was  run  in  to 
the  station-house  as  a  "  drunk  and  disorderly," 
and  was  sentenced  to  the  House  of  Correction 
for  thirty  days. 

"  This  loafing  around  the  docks  and  picking 
and  stealing  from  vessels  has  got  to  be  stopped, 
Hagan,"  said  the  judge. 

"  Yes,  judge,  your  honor,"  said  Hungry  Ha 
gan. 

II. 

There  was  little  in  the  way  of  regular  en 
tertainment  at  Washington  Island.  The  two 
ladies  held  interminable  friendly  conversations, 
and  Bertha  made  great  progress  with  an  afghan 
she  was  knitting,  which  she  said  was  alone 
worth  the  price  of  admission.  In  the  mornings 
it  pleased  her  to  follow  Emma  about  the  house 
in  a  large  gingham  apron,  the  sleeves  rolled  up 
over  her  round  white  arms,  and  engage  in  some 
of  the  lighter  domestic  duties.  In  the  after 
noon  they  dressed  in  costumes  which  seemed, 
to  the  benighted  intelligence  of  the  island,  of 


114  DEODAND. 

an  incomparable  elegance  and  fashion.  They 
laughed  in  secret  at  this  simplicity,  like  the 
classic  augurs  on  their  towers,  knowing  well 
that  there  was  not  a  costume  of  them  all  that 
was  not  a  couple  of  seasons  old  at  the  least. 

They  took  short  walks.  There  was  a  rustic 
seat  with  a  sun-dial  near  it  on  the  hillside,  to 
which  they  much  resorted.  One  day  Mr.  Par- 
dee  took  them  to  a  small,  green,  almost  per 
fectly  circular  lake,  in  the  interior.  Again,  they 
went  down  in  company  and  honored  the  host 
by  a  visit  to  him  in  person  at  his  store.  He 
received  them  with  a  humorously  exaggerated 
courtesy,  and  placed  a  well-whittled  arm-chair 
and  office  stool  af  their  disposal.  The  taci 
turn  steady-going  agent,  Copp,  looked  over  his 
spectacles  at  them.  The  country  store  was 
cool  and  semi-obscure.  The  door  at  its  farther 
end  showed  a  bright  strip  of  sunlight  dancing 
zigzag  upon  the  water  off  the  dock.  There 
were  scythes  and  hoe-handles,  pails,  hams,  and 
boots  depending  from  the  rafters.  There  were 
garden  seeds,  nails,  coarse  dry-goods  and  cloth 
ing,  perfumery,  stationery,  hard -tack,  powder 
and  shot,  jars  of  citron,  and  candy  in  sticks. 
Up-stairs  was  a  sail-loft  with  a  stock  of  cordage 
and  tackle.  All  that  the  miscellaneous  needs 
of  the  island  demanded  were  ministered  to 
from  this  single  source  of  supply.  The  trade 


DEODAND.  115 

was  conducted  largely  by  means  of  barter,  the 
merchant  taking  produce  for  shipment  and 
making  payment  for  it  in  goods. 

Bertha  wished  to  be  weighed.  She  proved 
to  turn  the  scale  at  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  pounds.  She  was  displeased ;  she  did  not 
wish  to  be  more  than  a  hundred  and  twenty. 
She  went  behind  the  counter  and  pretended  to 
be  salesman.  While  there,  a  customer  came 
in  and  inquired  for  brown  sugar.  She  got  it 
in  person,  and  expended  with  her  pretty  hands 
an  elaborate  preparation  upon  the  tying  of  the 
package  in  its  coarse  paper  with  a  profusion  of 
strings,  that  must,  at  current  rates  of  labor, 
have  added  largely  to  the  price  of  the  com 
modity. 

"  That  makes  it  as  good  as  white,  miss,"  said 
the  man  gallantly,  receiving  it  from  her  hand. 

"  There  !  you  see  there  are  people  who  appre 
ciate  me,"  said  Bertha,  returning  complacently 
to  her  friends. 

The  schoolmaster,  in  a  remote  corner  of  the 
store  at  the  time  overhauling  some  fishing  gear, 
saw  this,  and  it  filled  him  with  a  vague,  pleas 
ant  sentiment.  He  had  not  as  yet  taken  ad 
vantage  of  Mrs.  Pardee's  invitation  to  him  to 
appear  at  the  house. 

"  We  were  altogether  too  supercilious,  / 
think,"  said  Bertha,  commenting  upon  it. 


116  DEODAND. 

"  You  did  not  even  take  the  pains  to  introduce 
him  to  me.  He  is  very  intelligent,  as  you  see, 
and  no  doubt  equally  independent." 

"  We  might  go  and  see  him  at  his  school  ?  " 
suggested  the  hostess. 

"  Oh,  yes,  we  must"  said  Bertha. 

"  It  will  have  to  be  very  soon,  then,  for  it 
closes  with  June,  and  here  we  are  within  a  day 
or  two  of  it." 

"  Very  well,  let  us  go  this  afternoon  ! " 

The  school-house  was  a  log  structure  in  the 
edge  of  the  woods.  There  were  morning-glories 
and  lilacs  clustered  about  it,  and  squirrels,  blue 
birds,  and  gophers  not  far  away.  Within  were 
a  dilapidated  blackboard,  a  chair  and  desk  for 
the  teacher,  and  two  long  benches  filled  by  a 
score  of  tow-headed,  barefooted  pupils.  At  one 
side,  in  contrast  to  the  general  sterility,  was  a 
row  of  shelves  containing  a  considerable  collec 
tion  of  books,  and  upon  the  top  a  plaster  bust 
and  a  German  student  lamp. 

The  sailor  schoolmaster  was  considerably 
flustered  at  the  appearance  of  his  unexpected 
guests.  Secretly,  he  would  much  rather  have 
been  discovered  in  his  bolder,  more  imposing 
profession  on  the  sea.  He  would  have  dis 
missed  the  school  at  once  on  this  account, 
pleading  that,  since  the  next  day  was  Satur 
day,  the  beginning  of  the  vacation,  it  was 


DEODAND.  117 

harder  than  usual  to  keep  his  scholars'  atten 
tion.  The  ladies  insisted  first,  however,  upon 
hearing  something  of  their  acquirements  in  the 
least  common  multiple,  pronominal  adjectives, 
and  the  like.  They  exchanged  complimen 
tary  remarks  upon  such  of  the  young  faces  as 
pleased  them.  Among  the  names  of  girls  they 
found  Dagmars,  Amalias,  and  Brunhildas  ;  the 
boys  were  Lars,  Olaf,  Gudrun,  and  Nefiolf. 

"  They  are  for  the  most  part  Northmen,  like 
myself,"  explained  the  master,  "Danes,  Nor 
wegians,  and  even  Icelanders,  though  the  latter 
are  few  now,  most  of  those  once  on  the  island 
having  moved  away." 

A  very  tow-headed  boy  in  baggy  clothes  of 
blue  cotton,  with  an  entirely  serious  expression 
of  countenance,  held  up  his  hand.  His  name 
was  given  as  Lars  Byosling. 

"  Please  say  something  to  make  us  laugh  !  " 
he  said,  preferring  his  request  to  Bertha. 

"  Why,  how  dreadfully  embarrassing,"  said 
that  young  person,  turning  away  in  a  whimsical 
consternation. 

"  There  I  Byosling,  that  will  do,"  said  the 
schoolmaster  to  the  applicant,  severely. 

"  We  have  but  few  visitors,"  he  explained 
to  the  ladies.  "  Most  of  them  are  elderly,  and 
are  in  the  habit  of  talking  to  the  school.  You 
are  probably  expected  to  do  something  of  the 


118  DEODAND. 

sort  also.  The  boy  meant  to  indicate  the  line 
they  would  like  to  have  you  follow." 

Mrs.  Emma,  however,  as  a  person  of  grave 
and  settled  position  in  the  world,  thought  best 
not  to  infringe  upon  the  established  custom, 
and  made  an  effort  at  some  remarks  of  her 
own,  befitting  the  occasion. 

"  You  must  all  be  very  good,"  she  said,  "  and 

—  mind  your  mothers  during  the  vacation,  and 

—  try  not  to  forget  what  you  have  learned.  — 
And   if   you  will  come  up  to  my  house  —  to 
Mr.  Pardee's  house,  you  know  —  to-morrow,  at 
three  o'clock,  there  will  be  something  for  you." 

With  this  the  session  was  concluded.  The 
pupils  darted  out  at  the  open  door,  through 
which  the  blue  sky  and  green  leaves  and  squir 
rels  and  jay-birds  had  been  looking  invitingly 
in  upon  them.  The  boys  whooped  amain,  and 
tossed  one  another's  hats  over  the  school-house ; 
the  girls  pursued  their  ways  demurely,  engaged 
in  the  consideration  of  things  which  they  had 
promised  upon  their  sacred  words  and  honors 
not  to  tell  each  other,  and  which  had  been  told  ; 
thereby  occasioning  bickerings,  and  refusals  to 
speak  as  long  as  they  lived. 

"  Are  you  going  to  the  fishing-grounds  to 
morrow  ?  I  believe  you  usually  go  Saturdays," 
asked  Emma  by  way  of  conversation. 

"  No,  I  think  not.    I  have  been  helping  Olaf- 


DEODAND.  119 

son  lately,  but  his  pound  net  is  broken  and  we 
cannot  do  much  of  anything  until  it  is  fixed." 

"  How  is  Olafson  getting  on  now  ?  "  she  in 
quired  next,  with  a  sort  of  proprietary  interest. 

Meanwhile  Bertha  strolled  about,  with  a 
dainty  prospecting  air.  Approaching  the  books, 
—  "  Oh  !  perhaps  you  have  something  nice  to 
read,"  she  said,  —  " '  The  Seaman's  Friend,' 
um,  —  Peters,  Kent,  urn,  —  Benedict's  Admi 
ralty  Practice,  Lowndes  on  Collision,  —  Black- 
stone  —  oh,  here  is  Blackstone ;  I  have  heard 
so  much  of  Blackstone.  Is  it  interesting  ? 
What  hard  work  men  have  to  go  through  !  " 

Halvorsen  now  joined  her. 

"  I  hear  you  mean  to  practice  law,"  she  con 
tinued.  "  Where  shall  you  settle  when  you  are 
ready?" 

" 1  must  go  where  there  is  plenty  of  ship 
ping.  Marine  law  is  what  I  have  especially  in 
view.  I  have  an  idea  that  my  practical  experi 
ence  in  navigation  and  acquaintance  on  the 
lakes  ought  to  give  me  a  certain  advantage  in 
that." 

"  There  is  a  good  deal  of  shipping  at  Bluff- 
burg,  where  I  live.  I  think  it  a  pretty  nice 
place,  too.  But  of  course  there  is  more  at 
Chicago." 

"  Well,  I  have  not  got  as  far  as  that  yet,"  he 
said,  putting  off  his  decision  of  the  matter. 


120  DEODAND. 

"  There  must  be  such  hardship  in  sailing  the 
lakes !  You  will  be  very  glad  to  get  through 
with  it,  of  course  ?  " 

"  Well  —  yes,"  he  assented,  rather  indiffer 
ently. 

"  Mrs.  Pardee  says  you  have  been  to  China 
and  everywhere.  Perhaps,  then,  you  do  not 
mind  the  lakes.  They  must  be  ever  so  much 
easier  than  the  ocean." 

"  Why  ?  " 

"  Oh,  if  a  storm  comes  up  you  are  so  much 
nearer  land,  you  know." 

The  sailor  had  an  amused  smile. 

"  There  is  nothing  a  sailor  likes  so  much  as 
sea-room,"  he  said  ;  "  nothing  he  dreads  so 
much  in  a  storm  as  a  lee  shore.  Here,  it  is 
nothing  but  a  lee  shore  all  the  time." 

"  Oh !  "  exclaimed  Bertha,  as  if  enlightened. 

"  The  lakes  are  much  worse  than  the  ocean 
to  navigate.  There  are  more  catastrophes  on 
them  in  proportion.  Take  up  a  paper  any 
morning  after  a  little  blow,  and  you  will  find 
a  list  of  wrecks  all  along  the  coast,  and  any 
quantity  of  canvas  gone.  Bark  Speedwell 
ashore  off  Forty  Mile  Point;  Northern  Light 
in  the  Grass  Island  Cut ;  schooner  Tidal  Wave 
wrecked  against  the  Grand  Haven  pier ;  schoon 
er  Forest  Belle,  main-sail  and  mizzen  gaff  top 
sail  blown  out  of  her  ;  scow  Pottawotamie,  fly- 


DEO  BAND.  121 

ing-jib  gone,  and  so  on.  And  then  the  collisions, 
the  ice  in  the  winter,  the  smaller  size  of  the 
vessels  and  the  greater  difficulty  with  the 
crews." 

"But  you  have  never  been  wrecked ?  " 

"  Yes,  once,  in  a  steam-barge  off  Point  Bet 
sey.  We  had  a  couple  of  other  barges  in  tow. 
Their  cables  parted  and  one  of  them  foundered 
with  our  own,  the  second  drifted  ashore.  We 
took  to  a  fifteen  foot  boat,  were  out  forty-eight 
hours  drifting  about  nearly  frozen  and  with 
nothing  to  eat,  and  finally  made  this  island 
quite  by  chance.  That  is  what  first  brought 
me  here." 

"  And  you  have  never  gone  away  since  ?  " 

"  Oh,  yes,  indeed.  But  it  is  a  quiet  place 
in  which  to  study  and  economize,  and  I  came 
back  afterwards.  I  should  not  be  here  this  sum 
mer,  except  that  a  new  bark  I  expected  to  com 
mand  is  not  finished.  I  never  sailed  a  bark  as 
commander,  and  since  I  have  been  promised  it 
I  do  not  care  to  take  up  with  anything  less." 

He  smiled  as  if  he  thought  this  must  strike 
her  as  very  arrogant.  She  smiled  pleasantly 
back  at  him,  admiring  his  strength  and  hardi 
hood. 

"  I  should  think  you  would  be  afraid,"  she 
said. 

"  «  When  you  have  to  do  with  salt-water  you 


122  DEODAND. 

must  expect  to  swallow  a  little,'  as  our  North 
ern  proverb  says,"  he  returned. 

That  evening  he  accepted  a  new  invitation 
from  the  ladies,  much  less  condescendingly 
made. 

They  all  sat  upon  the  veranda  after  an  early 
tea.  A  somewhat  notable  change  was  to  be 
remarked  in  the  schoolmaster's  appearance.  In 
stead  of  his  flannel  shirt  he  wore  a  white  one 
with  a  collar  which  seemed  of  excessive  white 
ness  in  contrast  with  his  bronzed  complexion. 
Regarding  him  closer  in  this  more  civilized 
costume,  they  decided  critically  that  you  would 
not  call  him  so  bad -looking,  by  any  means. 
He  had  a  well -shaped  head  and  a  good  ath 
letic  figure.  One  feature  you  would  notice  at 
once  in  his  fine  teeth.  They  did  not  recall 
pearls  and  the  other  conventional  similes  so 
much  as  the  tooth-brush  and  a  habit  of  scru 
pulous  personal  neatness.  He  sat  upon  an  up 
per  step  with  his  straw  hat  in  his  hands,  while 
the  ladies  were  engaged  with  fancy  work.  Mr. 
Pardee  remained  for  a  time  smoking  and  talked 
to  Halvorsen,  with  an  appearance  of  much  con 
fidence  in  his  judgment,  about  some  matters  of 
business,  then  went  away. 

Bertha  was  inclined  to  question  the  caller 
further  about  his  adventurous  career.  He  said 
after  a  while,  with  not  a  bad  grace,  that  he  was 


DEODAND.  123 

occupying  a  very  disproportionate  share  in  the 
talk.  It  would  be  fair  now  to  hear  some  of  the 
existing  episodes  of  her  life  in  return. 

"  Mine !  "  exclaimed  she,  with  a  strong  rising 
inflection.  "  I  never  had  any.  I  have  led  the 
most  humdrum  of  existences.  But  then  I  am 
not  sorry.  I  do  not  like  serious  and  tragic 
things,  only  to  hear  about  them,  of  course.  I 
want  things  to  happen  to  me  just  as  to  every 
body  else.  It  shows  you  do  not  amount  to 
much  to  feel  that  way,  but  I  can't  help  it." 

Still  Halvorsen  smilingly  refused  to  be  drawn 
out  any  further  about  himself. 

"Well,  then,  let  us  talk  about  the  island," 
said  Bertha.  "  I  dote  upon  islands  ;  you  are 
so  contented  in  them.  You  can  tell  what  you 
are  bounded  by  on  the  north,  the  south,  the 
east  and  the  west.  It  does  not  rack  your  brains 
like  being  in  a  corner  of  a  great  continent. 
And,  besides,  it  makes  you  think  of  Robinson 
Crusoe,  and  the  mango  apple  and  cocoa-nuts 
and  pine-apples  for  nothing,  don't  you  know?" 

As  she  wished  it,  he  talked  to  her  about  the 
island;  he  catalogued  all  that  was  of  note  in  it. 
There  were  pictured  rocks,  fossils,  a  mound  of 
bones  marked  with  a  cross,  supposed  to  be  the 
remains  of  an  Indian  war-party  that  perished 
in  the  strait.  Sometimes  she  stopped  her  nee 
dles  in  a  tangled  X  at  interesting  passages  and 


124  DEODAND. 

bent  towards  him,  holding  them  against  her 
pretty  corsage.  Emma  also  took  part,  and  later 
her  husband  joined  them  again. 

They  saw  a  man  come  out  from  one  of  the 
cabins  below,  wash  his  face  in  a  pail  of  water, 
and  begin  to  strum  upon  a  guitar.  The  refrain 
came  sweetly  up  to  them :  — 

"  Tant  quo  j'entendrai  chanter  les  oiseaux, 
Tant  que  j'entendrai  couler  les  ruisseaux, 
Moi,  je  chanterai." 

Only  he  pronounced  j'entendree  and  chant- 
eree  instead  of  in  the  proper  way  —  using  a 
poor  Canadian  patois. 

"  Why,  he  is  French,"  cried  Bertha. 

"  Yes,"  said  Halvorsen,  "  we  have  the  most 
polyglot  of  populations ;  he  is  a  Canadian." 

"  I  meant  to  ask  you  the  other  day  when 
you  spoke  of  it, — were  they  the  real  Icelanders 
who  used  to  be  here  ?  " 

"  Oh,  yes ;  the  original  article." 

«  Why  have  they  left  ?  " 

"  It  was  too  cold  for  them,  and  they  com 
plained  of  the  hard  work  of  having  to  fell  the 
timber  and  clear  the  land.  They  were  not  used 
to  it.  At  home  they  have  little  vegetation,  and 
live  chiefly  by  fishing.  It  happened,  too,  at 
the  time  they  were  here  that  the  fishing  partly 
failed.  Most  of  them  became  discouraged  and 
gradually  straggled  away  to  the  mainland.  Con- 


DEODAND.  125 

trary  to  what  one  might  think,  they  were  polite, 
peaceable,  rather  small  of  stature,  and  effemi 
nate." 

"  Real  Icelanders,  and  too  cold  for  them ! 
Well,  what  erroneous  impressions  one  forms ! 
I  have  only  the  idea  of  the  romances,  that  they 
were  great,  sturdy  men  capable  of  enduring 
anything.  Have  you  read  *  Thiodolf,'  and 
4  Aslauga's  Knight  ?  '  They  are  such  charm 
ing  stories,  and  the  language  is  so  sweet  and 
simple.  There  is  always  a  gigantic  hero  who 
sails  from  the  high  North  to  seek  his  fortune. 
Sometimes  he  marries  a  fair  chatelaine  in  a 
.castle  on  the  coast  of  France  ;  sometimes  he 
takes  service  under  the  Greek  Emperor  at  Con 
stantinople  and  falls  in  love  with  a  Byzantine 
princess,  like  his  own  Hecla,  a  mingling  of  ice 
and  fire." 

"  Ah,  yes,  I  have  read  our  Northern  stories," 
returned  Halvorsen  with  enthusiasm ;  "  they 
are  indeed  beautiful." 

"  The  fighting  and  killing  does  not  seem  to 
shock  you,  as  in  other  books.  I  wonder  why 
they  have  so  much  of  it  ?  The  writers  make 
fine  characters  and  seem  capable  of  appreci 
ating  other  things." 

"  Perhaps  it  is  symbolical.  Perhaps  it  means 
to  glorify  men  who  are  unsparing  of  themselves 
and  unswerving  in  their  purpose  to  overcome 


126  DEO  D  AND. 

difficulties.     That  may  be  one  reason  why  we 
like  it." 

While  thus  they  talked,  every  detail  of  the 
scene  below  was  clearly  impressed  upon  the 
eye.  The  wharves,  the  gray  cabins,  the  pine 
trees  around  the  lonely  shores  of  the  inlet,  were 
mirrored  in  the  deep,  placid  water.  As  twi 
light  lengthened  into  night,  the  sail  of  some 
belated  fishing-boat  now  and  then  glided  into 
haven  like  a  wandering  ghost. 

When  the  company  had  dispersed,  a  light 
twinkled  from  the  school -house,  and  burned 
till  a  small  hour  of  the  morning.  The  ambi 
tious  young  man  kept  there  his  late  vigils  over 
his  books,  not  to  disturb  the  humble  people 
with  whom  he  lodged. 

A  face  came  between  him  and  his  page.  He 
was  feeling  for  the  first  time  the  charm  there 
is  in  that  product  of  a  high  civilization,  a  well 
brought  up,  beautiful  girl,  with  all  her  seduc 
tive,  if  conventional,  graces  upon  her  head.  Its 
potency  was  increased  by  the  lack  of  a  basis  for 
comparison,  not  only  on  the  island  itself  but  in 
his  whole  life.  It  took  hold  upon  him  like  a 
spell  of  witchcraft.  He  had  had  no  social  ex 
perience,  but  discerned  true  refinement  by  a 
kind  of  instinct.  He  recognized  that  it  was 
nobility  and  kindly  sympathy  in  her  that  made 
this  friendly  treatment  of  himself  by  the  daugh- 


DEODAND.  127 

ter  of  wealth  and  elegant  surroundings  possible. 
In  bis  earlier  youtb  he  had  been  led  by  clap 
trap  writings  of  a  cheap  order  to  believe  that 
merit  resides  alone  in  the  honest  poor,  and  had 
inclined  to  hold  himself  hostile  to  their  self- 
styled  superiors.  The  present  was  one  of  his 
few  opportunities  to  set  himself  right.  He 
liked  the  tone  of  these  conversations.  Nothing 
very  new  was  developed  in  them,  but  the  sub 
jects,  the  refinement  of  manner,  the  light  gen 
eralization  that  often  pervaded  them,  interested 
him.  He  felt  with  Mill,  though  possibly  he 
had  not  read  him,  that  mental  calibre  is  to 
be  gauged  by  the  proportion  of  generalities  to 
personalities  in  the  talk.  Rather  than  endure 
much  that  passed  for  conversation  in  his  lim 
ited  experience,  he  would  have  preferred  to 
range  the  woods  with  his  gun  or  sail  his  boat 
indefinitely  in  silence. 

In  some  such  way  as  this  he  accounted  to 
himself  for  liking  the  discourse  and  companion 
ship,  but  it  is  not  certain  that  he  was  not  ready 
even  now  to  discover  a  superior  wisdom  in  any 
thing  that  might  fall  from  Bertha's  lips.  He 
repeated  his  visits  and  presently  saw  her  al 
most  every  day.  He  was  welcome  enough  on 
his  own  account  if  he  but  knew  it ;  but,  uncer 
tain  of  this,  he  made  pretexts  of  bringing  some 
trifling  article  for  inspection,  —  a  fossil,  an 


128  DEODAND. 

arrow-head,  or  unusual  plant.  One  day  he 
brought  the  same  serio-comic  young  Byosling 
who  had  preferred  the  request  at  the  school,  to 
dance  a  hornpipe  for  them.  He  explained  to 
Bertha,  in  answer  to  her  questions,  which  is 
the  port  side  and  which  the  starboard  side  of  a 
ship ;  how  it  is  that  she  can  sail  within  a  few 
points  of  the  wind  which  seems  blowing  di 
rectly  against  her ;  how  sailing  on  a  wind  is 
more  advantageous  than  off  ;  why  the  bulge  of 
a  ship,  like  that  of  a  fish,  should  be  largest  for 
ward  of  the  centre ;  and  many  other  matters  of 
equal  concern. 

On  mornings  when  Emma  was  too  busy, 
Bertha  had  the  habit  of  going  alone  to  a  shady 
seat  she  favored  on  the  hillside  by  the  sun 
dial.  From  here  some  small  blue  islands,  the 
Strawberries,  were  seen  dotted  on  the  water  at 
a  great  distance  away.  In  the  vicinity  was  an 
apple-orchard,  too  hardly  used  by  the  climate 
to  bear  any  but  a  gnarled,  useless  fruit.  Par- 
dee,  by  Halvorsen's  advice,  contemplated  im 
proving  it  with  some  hardy  Siberian  grafts. 
The  young  girl  delighted  to  tantalize  or  re 
ward  the  shy  calves  and  colts  which  pastured 
there,  luring  them  towards  her  at  the  fence 
with  handfuls  of  tender  grass.  Such  quiet 
hours  alone,  the  wind  blowing  softly  on  her 
cheek,  listening  to  slight  tinklings,  whispers, 


DEODAND.  129 

the  notes  of  katydid  and  grasshopper,  the  rat 
tle  of  the  locust,  while  the  heated  atmosphere 
wavers  with  a  visible  tremor  in  the  sunshine, 
filled  her  with  a  languorous  sentiment.  In  the 
vague  pensiveness  and  longing  of  such  a  time, 
face  to  face  with  the  infinite  growth  and  kind 
ness  of  nature,  a  tender  young  heart  may  be 
susceptible  to  dangerous,  unwonted  influences. 

She  looked  up  from  her  book,  disturbed  by  a 
strange  snuffling  sound  near  by,  and  there  was 
a  drove  of  very  clean  little  pigs  close  to  her. 
She  uttered  a  little  shoo!  with  a  shake  of  a 
corner  of  her  skirt,  and,  lowering  their  heads, 
they  plunged  wildly  down  the  slope,  not  unlike 
the  scriptural  swine  which  cast  themselves 
headlong  into  the  sea. 

She  perceived  at  the  same  moment  Halvor- 
sen  coming  towards  her  over  the  hill.  He  had 
in  his  hands,  to  display,  a  stone  hatchet  un 
earthed  that  morning  by  a  farmer  in  ploughing. 
They  talked  of  the  pictured  rocks  of  the  south 
coast. 

"You  might  make  a  reputation,"  said  Ber 
tha,  "  by  copying  the  inscriptions  or  figures 
upon  them,  and  sending  them  to  some  learned 
society.  Nobody  has  yet  done  it,  you  say." 

"  I  have  thought  of  that,"  he  replied,  "  but 
they  are  rather  difficult  to  get  at.  It  is  only 
to  be  done,  by  boat,  in  pleasant  weather.  I 


130  DEODAND. 

fear,  too,  that  I  hardly  have  sufficient  interest 
in  such  matters,  when  I  see  how  much  they 
occupy  other  people.  To  devote  so  much  ardor 
to  the  past  seems  a  way  of  dodging  the  pres 
ent." 

An  expedition  was  planned  to  see  these  rocks 
and  at  the  same  time  the  interior  of  the  island, 
by  crossing  to  Larson's  place,  on  the  southern 
shore,  and  thence  taking  boat. 

This  intimacy  may  now  have  begun  to  bear 
quite  the  aspect  of  a  flirtation  ;  but  nobody 
took  concern  about  it.  Mrs.  Pardee  believed 
that  the  schoolmaster  amused  her  visitor  just  a 
little  more  than  the  barefoot  boy  who  danced 
the  hornpipe  for  them,  or  the  Canadian  down 
among  the  cabins  with  his  guitar.  He  was 
only  one  of  the  eccentricities  of  the  island. 
Had  Emma  understood  her  bosom  friend  to  the 
same  extent  she  supposed,  possibly  the  course 
of  affairs  at  Washington  Island,  and  their  con 
sequences,  would  have  been  widely  different. 
Bertha  would  have  considered  preposterous  the 
idea  that  she  might  fall  in  love  with  the  school 
master  ;  but  being  of  a  generous  disposition 
and  especially  susceptible  to  masculine  ambi 
tion  and  force  as  she  was,  the  intimacy  was  for 
her  of  a  hazardous  kind  which  might  end  even 
in  that.  Her  own  father  had  conquered  his 
way  to  a  notable  success  from  small  begin- 


DEODAND.  131 

nings,  and  she  was  but  the  prouder  of  him  for 
it.  She  had  been  reared  in  the  midst  of  every 
comfort  and  luxury,  and  a  general  opinion  that 
one  man  is  better  than  another  for  the  posses 
sion  of  these  ;  but  in  her  inmost  heart  she  had 
no  reverence  for  conventional  caste,  and  knew 
that  there  are  things  far  higher  yet. 

Had  Halvorsen,  too,  known  that  he  was  to 
fall  in  love  with  her,  he  would  have  held  back 
and  gone  sturdily  about  his  business.  He  knew 
so  little  about  it  that  he  hardly  knew  what  it 
implied  ;  he  did  not  know  what  it  would  do  to 
him.  All  the  softer  agitation  of  the  heart  had 
been  kept  in  abeyance  by  his  active  life,  his 
ambitious  aspirations,  and  his  lack  of  social 
opportunities. 

Before  the  expedition  to  the  pictured  rocks 
took  place,  a  large  accession  was  made  to  the 
party  which  would  share  in  it.  The  Pride  of 
the  West  landed  one  afternoon  a  certain  Mrs. 
Jackson  Miller,  her  daughter  Miss  Florence 
Miller,  and  Mr.  Bryant,  a  college  under-gradu- 
ate  and  an  admirer  of  the  latter,  —  all  fashion 
able  people  on  their  way  to  Mackinaw.  They 
were  relatives  of  the  Pardees,  and  they  meant  to 
stay  over  till  the  next  boat. 

Mr.  Halvorsen  was  not  pleased  with  this  new 
irruption.  It  would  naturally  put  an  end  to 


132  DEO  BAND. 

the  intimacy  that  had  been  so  pleasant  to  him. 
Still,  he  was  not  a  man  to  make  much  of  his 
discontents.  He  reflected  that  there  was  a 
great  deal  of  time  of  late  which  he  might  no 
doubt  have  put  to  better  advantage  ;  arose  dog 
gedly  at  daylight  the  next  morning  after  their 
coming,  and  went  off  in  his  fishing-boat. 

The  result  was  not  what  he  had  anticipated. 
He  found  himself,  on  the  contrary,  in  demand 
as  a  guide,  philosopher,  and  friend.  Mr.  Bry 
ant,  the  under-graduate,  was  ready  to  treat  so 
good  a  shot  and  apt  a  sailor  with  a  distin 
guished  consideration. 

Halvorsen  put  on  his  best  coat,  therefore, 
and  was  up  at  the  house  more  than  ever. 
Things  there  were  much  livelier  than  they  had 
been.  There  were  whist,  dancing,  and  some 
times  of  calm  evenings,  rowing  on  the  harbor. 
The  under-graduate,  by  no  means  bent  upon 
keeping  to  himself  the  peculiar  advantages  of 
his  seat  of  learning,  inculcated  shrill  uncouth 
methods  of  cheering,  and  trolled  strange  cho 
ruses  of  — 

"  The  bull-dog  on  the  bank, 
The  bull-frog  in  the  pool ; 
The  bull-dog  to  the  bull-frog  said, 
You  blanked  old  water-fool !  " 

The  ladies,  too,  sometimes  joined  in,  and 
sang  the  preposterous  words  in  their  delicate 
soprano  voices. 


DEODAND.  133 

As  to  dancing,  Halvorsen  considered  it  a  light 
accomplishment,  as  no  doubt  it  is,  but  he  had 
not  spent  so  many  years  among  the  jolly  Jack- 
tars  for  nothing,  and  he,  too,  had  some  quaint 
nautical  steps  to  show  them. 

It  was  a  great  augury  of  his  success  that  he 
was  so  quick  to  observe,  so  quick  to  adopt  all 
that  was  good.  In  respect  to  manners,  the  de 
meanor  of  these  well-bred  people,  which  he  had 
not  before  had  so  fair  an  opportunity  of  study 
ing,  pleased  him  greatly.  The  graceful  bowing 
of  the  young  man,  the  forms  of  address  and  re 
quest,  the  apologies  for  passing  in  front  of  a 
person,  all  these  methods  of  courteous  consider 
ation,  crystallized  into  habit,  which  one  hardly 
acquires,  even  with  the  best  heart  in  the  world, 
in  the  rude  career  he  had  led,  seemed  to  enno 
ble  life  and  fill  it  with  new  possibilities. 

The  only  conveyance  to  Larson's  place  was 
over  a  grass-grown  road  through  the  woods,  by 
a  wagon  and  an  old  horse  even  less  used  than 
the  road.  Had  the  horse  been  younger,  to  har 
ness  him  might  have  been  a  work  of  danger  as 
well  as  of  difficulty,  since  each  repetition  of  the 
process  impressed  him  as  an  entire  novelty. 
The  under-graduate  thought  good  to  style  him 
Bucephalus,  and  so,  by  easy  gradation,  Hydroce- 
phalus.  Standing  in  the  front  of  the  wagon  as 
its  driver,  he  pretended  to  have  difficulty  in  re- 


134  DEODAND. 

straining  the  wild  career  of  his  impetuous  steed ; 
then  he  would  pretend  to  fall  backward  into 
the  ladies'  laps,  and  was  repulsed  by  them  with 
laughing  shrieks. 

A  light  scattering  of  birch,  hazel,  poplar,  and 
oak  skirted  the  immediate  roadside,  but  behind 
these  was  seen  the  dark  forest  full  of  mysterious 
vistas  of  tangled  debris  untouched  by  the  hand 
of  man.  Great  trunks,  rotted  to  dust  and  fallen 
in  the  fullness  of  their  time,  stretched  back  in 
long  grave-like  mounds  into  the  obscurity.  The 
hollow  clink  of  cow-bells  was  heard,  now  near, 
now  far,  as  though  sedate  spirits  might  be  walk 
ing  in  the  wood  and  signaling  to  one  another. 

The  travelers  were  pleased  with  a  small 
white  church  embowered  in  foliage  and  far 
indeed  from  any  house.  They  canvassed  one 
another's  knowledge  of  the  difference  between 
rye  and  oats  growing  in  the  sparse  fields  of  the 
settlers.  They  came  to  the  cabin  —  upon  its 
knoll,  under  an  oak-tree  —  of  old  Abendschein, 
to  which  he  had  retired  after  his  years  of  bridge- 
tending  at  Bluffburg.  To  support  the  scanty 
wants  of  his  declining  years  he  was  now  a  maker 
of  wooden  shoes.  When  Bertha  asked  him  if 
he  would  sell  her  a  small  pair  of  these,  as  a 
curiosity,  he  replied  that  he  would  do  so,  and 
that  they  were  equally  good  either  as  a  curiosity 
or  for  working  in  a  slaughter-house.  They  met 


DEODAND.  135 

a  woman  of  the  true  peasant  type,  with  a  white 
cloth  on  her  head,  and  wearing  the  wooden 
shoes  with  a  clumsy,  bumping  gait ;  and  then 
they  came  to  the  south  shore  at  Larson's. 

It  happened,  however,  by  an  unusual  chance, 
that  Larson  was  absent,  and  with  him,  both  his 
boats.  The  main  purpose  of  the  expedition 
was  thus  of  necessity  abandoned,  but  a  pleasant 
afternoon  could  still  be  spent  upon  the  shore. 
The  yellow  sand-beach  was  strewn  here  and 
there  with  fragments  of  timber  bleached  as 
white  as  bones  from  long  exposure  to  sun  and 
waves.  The  student  and  Halvorsen  swam  out 
into  the  lake  while  the  others  watched  them. 
The  schoolmaster  was  very  expert. 

"  You  will  never  come  to  be  drpwned,  that 
is  certain,"  said  Mrs.  Jackson  Miller,  admir 
ing  him. 

"  Perhaps  not,"  he  returned  with  a  smile. 
"Those  destined  for  a  certain  other  ending 
rarely  are." 

The  following  week  the  Millers  pursued  their 
journey  to  Mackinaw,  and  in  a  few  days  there 
after  Bertha  went  back  to  Bluffburg,  leaving 
the  schoolmaster  to  strange  sensations  of  re 
gret  and  tenderness  about  her  —  to  an  agitation 
of  heart  and  mind  he  had  never  known  nor 
dreamed  of  before. 


136  DEODAND. 

III. 

The  summer  went  by  irksomely  for  him  at 
the  island  after  that.  The  bark,  building  for 
him  by  the-  Trowbridges  of  Buffalo,  was  still 
delayed.  It  became  evident  that  she  would  not 
be  in  readiness  for  more  than  a  single  trip  be 
fore  the  close  of  the  season.  He  devoted  him 
self  with  redoubled  energy  to  his  studies  in  or 
der  to  quell  the  fiery  impatience  by  which  he 
was  consumed,  and  made  ready  to  pass  the  bar 
examination  in  the  fall.  He  frequented  Ber 
tha's  favorite  resorts,  where  she  had  left  for  him 
a  subtle  aroma  of  her  presence.  A  sweet  am 
bitious  hope  sprang  up  in  his  breast.  "  Well, 
why  not  ? "  he  said  to  himself.  Body  and 
mind  had  answered  heretofore  to  every  demand 
he  had  made  upon  them ;  why  should  he  not 
aspire  to  this  also  ?  He  sat  in  her  rustic  seat 
on  the  hillside,  and  the  pencil  of  shadow  mov 
ing  slowly  over  the  sun-dial  reminded  him  of  all 
that  he  had  yet  to  do. 

He  secured  at  last  a  copy  of  the  hieroglyphics 
on  the  pictured  rocks,  and  made  this  a  pretext 
for  writing  to  Bertha.  They  were  got  indeed 
for  no  other  purpose.  A  little  correspondence 
sprang  up  between  them.  Bertha's  family,  to 
whom  she  showed  one  or  two  of  his  letters, 
agreed  with  her  that  there  must  be  a  future 


DEODAND.  137 

before  this  young  man.  She  had  already  told 
them  his  story.  Her  own  letters  to  him  took  an 
almost  sisterly  tone.  She  was  glad  to  have  any 
thing  to  do  with  aiding  in  the  least  the  prog 
ress  of  a  man  whom  she  believed  destined  for 
eminence.  He  was  an  example  of  the  force  of 
innate  character.  Everything  had  been  against 
him ;  but  he  had  put  aside  obstacles  and  chosen 
the  better  part  with  unerring  instinct,  just  as 
there  are  those  who  fall  from  the  most  careful 
of  nurturing  and  favorable  of  circumstances. 

The  gray  island  became  gray  with  hoar  frosts, 
and  grayer  yet  when  the  first  snows  of  winter 
began  to  sift  down  upon  it.  Halvorsen's  bark 
was  not  forthcoming,  even  for  the  single  trip. 
He  had  counted  upon  it  chiefly  for  the  sake  of 
seeing  Bertha  at  Bluffburg.  He  was  not  to  be 
balked  in  it,  however,  and  so  took  the  Pride  of 
the  West  on  her  last  passage,  and  paid  his  call, 
as  a  private  individual  and  not  as  captain. 

Bertha  presented  him  to  her  parents,  who 
liked  and  were  impressed  by  him.  If  prophecy 
were  anything,  he  was  secure  of  success.  Al 
most  everybody  with  whom  he  came  in  contact 
predicted  it.  He  passed  his  examination  for 
the  bar  with  flying  colors,  and  then  visited 
Buffalo  to  see  the  Trowbridges  about  the  de 
lay.  It  had  been  unavoidable.  Everything 
was  to  be  as  be  desired  it  in  the  spring,  and 


138  DEODAND. 

the  rate  of  remuneration  spoken  of  was  gratify- 
ingly  beyond  his  anticipations.  It  would  give 
him  surplus  enough  in  a  single  season  to  en 
able  him,  if  he  wished,  to  begin  the  practice 
of  his  new  profession  on  shore.  He  meditated 
anxiously  as  to  the  most  advantageous  point  in 
which  to  establish  himself.  If  only  one  happy 
condition  could  be  fulfilled,  how  transcendently 
superior  would  Bluffburg  be  to  all  other  possi 
ble  localities  ! 

The  condition  was  for  his  purpose  most  un 
expectedly  and  blissfully  fulfilled.  No  longer 
able  to  contain  his  mental  suffering,  he  made  it 
known  to  Bertha,  and  she  was  ready  to  accept 
him  as  her  affianced  husband.  The  better  judg 
ment  of  her  father  approved  the  connection, 
though  involuntary  prejudice  opposed  it.  He 
had  heard  the  best  accounts  of  the  suitor,  and 
knew  from  his  record  as  already  made,  and  his 
evident  traits  of  character,  that  he  must  indu 
bitably  go  farther.  He  said  to  Halvorsen,  how 
ever  :  — 

"  I  have  no  objection  to  make  to  my  daugh 
ter's  choice,  but  let  us  wait  a  little  I  I  do  not 
urge  that  this  is  only  a  temporary  enthusiasm, 
but  I  am  sure  you  will  agree  with  me  that  it 
will  be  wiser  to  take  time  to  see.  We  will  not 
call  it  an  engagement  just  yet.  Let  us  wait  a 
short  time  ! ' 


DEODAND.  139 

But  they  knew  that  they  should  never  change, 
and  that  with  this  the  affair  was  settled.  Ber 
tha  had  been  taken  very  greatly  by  surprise. 
She  had  fancied  herself  far  indeed  from  this. 
She  had  thought  it  was  no  more  than  a  feeling 
of  sympathetic  companionship,  of  friendship,  she 
entertained  for  him.  But  his  manliness,  ardor, 
and  force,  manifest  here  as  in  all  other  situa 
tions,  together  with  a  tenderness  she  had  never 
seen  in  him  before,  irresistibly  prevailed. 

"  Only  to  think,"  she  said,  "  that  to  this  day 
you  have  never  even  been  introduced  to  me." 

"  If  my  other  short-comings  could  but  be  as 
easily  remedied  ?  "  he  replied. 

Mrs.  Emma  pronounced  this  sequel  to  the 
pleasant  summer  on  the  island  the  most  as 
tounding  thing,  for  a  girl  of  Bertha's  position, 
she  had  ever  heard  of. 

"  There  was  once  a  girl,  by  the  name  of  Sally 
Gary,  who  went  back  on  George  Washington, 
and  she  made  a  great  mistake,"  was  the  good- 
humored  reply  of  her  husband.  "  I  should  not 
wonder  if  we  were  all  prouder  to  know  the 
schoolmaster  some  day  than  he  to  know  us. 
What  is  there  now  to  keep  him  under  ?  " 

Probably  the  ex -schoolmaster  was  at  this 
time  nearly  at  his  very  best.  He  was  cheer 
ful  and  self-possessed,  knowing  that  force  wins. 
The  world  is  so  importunate  to  have  its  labori- 


140  DEODAND. 

ous  work  done  by  proxy  that  if  one  but  assert 
his  ability  with  sufficient  confidence  it  is  con 
fided  to  him.  If  in  addition  he  be  really  com 
petent,  he  need  never  want  for  remunerative 
employment.  His  taste  and  assiduity  had  given 
him  culture,  his  observation  manners,  his  hard 
ships  insight,  and  his  successes  a  confidence 
which  had  not  yet  degenerated,  as  the  danger 
is  in  this  sort  of  character,  into  a  petty  narrow 
ness  and  vain  self-glorification. 

On  departing  after  this  visit,  it  was  with  the 
expectation  of  returning  in  the  spring,  now  not 
far  away,  in  his  new  vessel.  Bertha  was  to  go 
down  to  see  her.  This  was  to  be  quite  a  dif 
ferent  thing  from  knocking  about  the  lakes  in 
the  ordinary  style  of  craft.  A  fine  large  bark, 
and  he  the  sole  commander  of  her,  —  this  was 
respectable  enough  to  be  made  known  to  any 
body  without  the  least  objection. 

The  coasts  of  the  great  lakes  are  "  a  step 
mother  to  ships,"  a  vast  inhospitable  stretch  of 
shore  in  which  there  is  little  escape  for  ves 
sels  from  the  fury  of  the  elements.  Nature  has 
made  no  original  provision  for  commerce  upon 
them.  The  deficiency  has  had  to  be  remedied 
by  man.  The  mouths  of  the  small  deep  rivers 
upon  which,  as  a  rule,  the  settlements  are 
founded,  have  been  utilized  for  harbors,  long, 
stout  breakwater  piers  being  extended  from 


DEODAND.  141 

them  to  deep  water.  The  entrance  to  the 
breakwaters  offers  but  a  narrow  mark  to  the 
steersman,  and  is  not  effected  without  many 
a  mishap,  and,  in  rough  weather,  even  many  a 
wreck. 

But  once  within,  the  harassed  vessel  glides 
up  to  her  moorings  in  the  heart  of  the  town 
as  if  upon  a  canal  of  oil.  Bridge  after  bridge 
opens,  and  shuts  behind  her,  mocking  with  a 
superfluity-  of  safety  the  wild  storms  snarling 
without.  Thus  it  was  at  Bluffburg,  with  the 
rest. 

Navigation  opened  early  in  the  succeeding 
spring.  Captain  Halvorsen  was  announced  as 
the  first  skipper  of  the  season  through  the 
Straits  of  Mackinaw. 

An  early  opening  to  the  season  is,  on  the 
whole,  unfavorable.  Uncertain  and  danger 
ous  weather  counteracts  the  advantage  of  the 
lengthened  freighting  period.  The  winter's  ice, 
broken  up  but  not  dissipated,  drifts  in  vast 
arctic  fields,  in  which  vessels  are  often  involved, 
delayed,  and  seriously  imperiled.  It  returns 
again  to  blockade  harbors  from  which  it  had 
long  since  vanished. 

Our  young  captain,  gazetted  first  through  the 
Straits,  thought  little  of  the  accustomed  obsta 
cles  of  the  season.  The  movement  and  action 
brought  him  ever  nearer  to  the  dear  goal  upon 


142  DEODAND. 

which  his  fancy  was  fixed.  With  a  far-off 
reminiscence  of  the  spirit  of  his  Berserker  an 
cestors,  he  relished  even  the  storm  and  the  con 
flict.  Perhaps  he  heard  in  its  rage  and  the 
crackling  of  the  ice  about  him  something  as  of 
the  joyous  whistling  of  the  spears  which  Swa- 
tulf  and  the  son  of  Asmundur  hurled  at  each 
other  across  the  northern  waters.  Sometimes 
again,  of  still  nights,  he  found  himself  amid  a 
field  of  ice-cakes,  all  grating  together  with  a 
noise  like  that  of  the  boughs  of  a  forest,  and  sinn 
ing  in  the  moonlight  like  scales  of  silver  armor. 

He  had  written  to  Bertha  of  the  progress  of 
his  bark,  about  her  spars,  her  beautiful  lines, 
and  the  bottle  of  Burgundy  which  had  been 
broken  over  her  head  at  the  launching,  when 
she  was  christened  the  Trowbridge  Brothers. 
He  said  he  was  proud  of  her,  and  perhaps  it 
would  be  harder  for  him  to  leave  the  water  at 
last  than  he  had  thought. 

But  it  was  not  the  Trowbridge  Brothers  that 
was  first  through  the  Straits,  though  Halvorsen 
was  the  captain  named.  On  the  contrary,  it 
was  the  schooner  Only  Son. 

"  Oh,  I  am  afraid,  I  am  afraid,"  said  Bertha, 
when  she  knew  of  this. 

"  It  is  nothing,  little  land-lubber,"  the  cap 
tain  assured  her  on  his  arrival.  "  I  do  not  like 
it  myself,  of  course;  but  the  bark  is  not  yet 


DEODAND.  143 

fully  rigged,  and  the  Trowbridges  were  anxious 
to  get  the  schooner  around  for  the  first  cargoes. 
They  asked  me  to  do  it  while  I  was  waiting, 
and  I  could  not  very  well  refuse.  It  is  only  for 
this  one  trip." 

"  But  how  could  you,  after  what  we  heard 
last  summer  at  the  island  ?  Oh,  if  anything 
should  happen  to  you  ! " 

"  Nonsense  !  You  will  think  it  arrogant,  no 
doubt,  but  I  have  a  certain  belief  in  my  star. 
I  cannot  realize,  for  instance,  that  anything 
could  happen  to  me,  that  I  could  die,  before  — 
well,  until  I  have  accomplished  something  im 
portant.  Do  you  ever  feel  that  way  ?  I  can 
see  perfectly  how  other  people,  you  know,  can 
be  run  over,  blown  up,  thrown  down  embank 
ments,  and  the  like,  before  they  have  had  a 
chance  ;  but  in  my  own  case  I  simply  do  not 
believe  it.  Most  absurd,  is  it  not  ?  " 

"  No,  I  like  it." 

But  still  she  thought  ruefully  of  the  Only 
Son.  Her  heart  yearned  over  her  lover  when 
he  went  away.  His  eye,  too,  was  moist  at  the 
proofs  she  gave  him  of  her  affection.  What 
had  he  done  in  so  brief  a  time  to  draw  upon 
him  the  delicious  tenderness  of  this  good  and 
charming  creature  ? 

The  Only  Son  was  chartered,  and  loaded  with 
wheat  for  Buffalo,  at  once.  She  had  already 


144  DEODAND. 

been  repainted  and  put  in  better  order,  but  the 
same  Hungry  Hagan  did  not  fail  to  recognize 
her  in  her  improved  guise,  and  dimly  conceived 
it  as  a  new  injury,  invented  for  the  purpose  of 
throwing  him  off  the  scent.  He  found  means 
of  approaching  her,  and  even,  it  was  afterwards 
said,  of  going  below.  In  subsequent  investiga 
tions,  too,  which  became  necessary,  it  was  found 
that  large  auger  holes  had  been  bored  in  her, 
and  only  partially  stopped  with  plugs. 

The  captain  came  briskly  aboard,  a  tug 
made  fast,  the  bridges  opened,  and  the  people 
upon  them,  though  delayed  in  their  passage, 
looked  down  amiably  at  the  stir  in  the  river, 
hailing  it  as  tangible  evidence  of  the  ending  of 
the  long,  inclement  winter.  The  breeze  with 
out  was  light,  but  favorable.  The  tug  cast  off 
her  towlines  beyond  the  piers,  and  the  Only 
Son  was  soon  hull  down  over  the  horizon. 

Bertha  watched  her  from  the  high  bluff, 
the  pride  and  favored  promenade  of  the  city. 
The  water  near  the  shore  had  the  turbid  ap 
pearance  it  takes  when  stirred  to  the  depths 
by  the  storms  of  early  spring  and  fall.  Be 
yond,  it  rose  in  a  single  broad  blue  plane,  like 
the  breadth  of  painted  canvas  with  which  the 
sea  is  shown  in  the  scenery  of  theatres.  In 
the  evening  Bertha  walked  the  bluff  again. 
The  wind  had  shifted  to  the  northwest,  and 


DEODAND.  145 

brought  back  some  ice ;  and  a  large  ring  was 
forming  about  the  moon.  When  she  went  to 
bed  a  few  snow-flakes  had  fallen.  She  awoke 
later  in  the  night.  The  moonlight  no  longer 
lay,  as  it  had  done,  in  a  misty  bar  on  the  floor 
of  her  chamber.  It  was  pitch  dark  ;  the  wind 
blew  a  gale ;  the  dashing  of  the  waves  was  borne 
distinctly  to  her  ears,  far  as  was  her  comfort 
able  home  from  the  shore.  Sitting  up  in  bed, 
in  the  white  robes  of  her  innocent  maidenly 
slumbers,  she  clasped  her  hands  together  and 
raised  an  affrighted  prayer  to  Heaven. 

At  that  hour  the  serious,  the  tragic  things  of 
life,  of  which  she  had  had  so  little  experience, 
were  very  near  to  her. 

At  that  hour  the  Only  Son,  after  a  vain  en 
deavor  to  beat  off,  was  driving  ashore  under 
bare  poles.  Her  anchor,  put  out  at  half  a  mile 
from  land,  dragged  bottom  and  was  of  no  avail. 
It  perhaps  but  served  to  render  the  shock  of  the 
breaking  waves  against  her  the  more  violent. 
The  decks  were  slippery  with  ice  and  snow, 
and  every  rope  and  miscellaneous  projection  was 
coated  with  a  savage  mail.  Masses  of  floating 
ice  smote  and  ground  against  her  heavily.  Her 
lights  were  properly  displayed,  red  to  port  and 
green  to  starboard,  and  her  fog-horn  blown 
continually.  There  was  no  remissness  now; 
all  the  puny  precautions  of  the  code  were  taken, 
10 


146  DEODAND. 

but  the  elements  laughed  them  to  scorn.  There 
was  no  help  ;  nothing  mortal  could  give  help  in 
such  a  night. 

The  light-keeper  saw  the  schooner  driving 
straight  upon  his  pier,  and  close  at  hand.  He 
thought  she  was  mad  enough  to  be  attempting 
to  make  port. 

"  Hard  down  !  hard  down  !  "  he  shouted  with 
his  hoarse  trumpet,  again  and  again  through  the 
darkness. 

But  there  was  no  helmsman  to  attend  his  di 
rections.  She  was  coming  on  stern  first;  he 
might  as  well  have  talked  to  his  light  station, 
shivering  and  rocking  above  him  on  its  iron 
supports. 

She  struck.  The  deck  load  rattled  out  upon 
the  breakwater  like  hail.  Her  mainmast  broke 
off  like  a  pipe-stem,  and  toppled  over,  with 
all  its  rigging,  smashing  panes  of  glass  in  the 
keeper's  house.  She  partially  righted  after 
this,  drove  along  the  side  of  the  pier,  cleared  it, 
went  to  the  southward,  and  settled  at  last  upon 
a  bar.  Some  of  the  crew  had  escaped  to  the 
pier ;  the  rest  sought  safety  in  the  rigging, 
through  which  the  sea  swept  full  at  every 
wave.  At  the  first  gray  of  daylight  they  were 
discovered,  but  it  was  nine  o'clock  before  a  scow 
could  be  drifted  out  to  them  and  the  half  dead 
survivors  taken  off. 


DEODAND.  147 

Two,  the  captain  and  cook,  had  swum  for  the 
shore  earlier,  but  only  the  cook  ever  reached  it. 
It  was  in  evidence  before  a  coroner's  jury  that 
Captain  Halvorsen  had  said  to  this  man  on  the 
vessel,  — 

"  I  can't  hold  on  any  longer,  Charley ;  I  am 
going  to  swirn  for  the  shore." 

"  Them  was  his  very  words,  so  they  was," 
said  the  cook. 

He  was  an  evil-looking  fellow,  and  for  a  long 
time  afterward  appeared  to  be  in  ample  funds, 
unearned  in  any  regular  occupation. 

This  report  was  probable  enough.  But  when 
the  stiff,  stark  body  of  the  captain  came  to  be 
found,  sorely  wounded,  stripped  of  all  its  valu 
ables,  and  clad  in  a  heavy  overcoat,  mittens  and 
mufflers,  of  which  he  would  certainly  have  di 
vested  himself  if  it  had  been  his  intention  to 
swim,  there  were  those  who  had  grave  misgiv 
ings.  Still,  what  could  a  coroner's  jury  of  hon 
est  men,  anxious,  too,  to  get  back  to  their  busi 
ness,  do  in  the  way  of  prying  into  the  mysteries 
of  that  wild  night  ?  The  wounds  might  have 
been  produced  by  the  floating  ice  ;  and  as  to 
valuables,  it  was  not  certain  just  what  the  cap 
tain  had  had,  and  then  again  they  might  have 
been  taken  from  the  body  by  those  who  first 
discovered  it. 

Bertha  came  with  her  father,  in  the  heaviest 


148  DEODAND. 

of  sable  garments,  to  the  funeral.  The  cere 
mony  was  conducted  from  an  inn  much  fre 
quented  by  mariners,  to  which  the  remains  had 
been  brought  for  the  greater  convenience.  It 
was  by  the  river  side,  with  a  balcony  hanging 
above  the  not  over  clean  flood,  from  which  it 
shrunk  back  as  if  in  a  certain  repulsion.  The 
girl  laid  flowers  upon  the  poor  stiff  dead  face. 
She  gave  way  to  no  demonstrative  grief  before 
the  public ;  but  the  respectable  man  who  kept 
the  place  said,  looking  at  her  with  awe,  — 

"  The  heart  breaks  me  to  see  such  a  case  like 
dose." 

The  playful  young  girl,  enamored  only  of 
what  was  bright  and  sunny  in  life,  developed 
now  qualities  for  which  she  had  never  been 
given  credit.  They  were  noble  and  .womanly 
and  lovable;  but  alas!  it  was  the  ending  of 
youth,  the  beginning  of  a  new  and  heavier  ex 
istence.  There  is  a  time  for  all  things.  The 
fruit  is  savory  and  wholesome,  the  timber  has 
many  precious  uses,  the  sere  and  yellow  leaves 
of  autumn  fertilize  the  ground,  the  dry  sticks 
are  useful  to  cast  into  the  fire  ;  but  ah  !  why 
must  the  perfumed  blossom  fade  ? 

The  sea  went  down ;  winter  vanished,  the 
spring  returned  with  a  new  access  of  brightness. 
The  commerce  of  the  port  came  and  went  peace 
fully  upon  the  wide  blue  flood.  Curious  specta- 


DEODAND.  149 

tors  rowed  out  to  the  wreck  and  passed  among 
its  tangled  spars  and  rigging.  The  wheat  com 
prising  its  cargo  covered  the  water  in  an  ex 
pansive  golden  area,  and  floated  in,  forming 
long  wind-rows  upon  the  beach. 

Hungry  Ilagan,  in  dog-like  competition  with 
his  neighbors,  on  his  sand  beach  gathered  it  up 
with  a  trembling  alacrity.  It  was  entirely  in 
accordance  with  his  views  that  this  gift  of  Prov 
idence  for  the  benefit  of  the  deserving  poor 
should  have  been  cast  up  at  his  very  door. 
Could  the  ancient  Lizzie  and  Louisa  have  been 
put  to  a  more  fitting  use,  at  last,  than  to  con 
tribute  to  the  comfort  of  this  honest  man  who 
had  suffered  so  much  by  her  fault  ? 


BRAXTON'S   NEW  ART. 


I. 

THE  lively  "Bob"  and  «  Gus"  were  sky 
larking  in  the  wide,  comfortable  hall.  It  was 
the  hour  following  the  Washington  afternoon 
dinner,  a  repast  which  has  something  of  a  place 
of  its  own,  unlike  the  general  run  of  dinners 
elsewhere.  Its  time  is  fixed  by  the  exigencies 
of  the  public  business  of  the  United  States  of 
America. 

The  scene  of  the  sports  was  a  Washington 
boarding-house,  somewhat  different  from  ordi 
nary  boarding-houses.  It  had  once  been  a  pri 
vate  mansion  of  dignity  and  state.  Its  hall  was 
provided  with  old-fashioned  hair-cloth  sofa  and 
chairs,  and  a  square  platform  staircase  mounted 
at  the  back.  Without,  its  front,  in  a  bulged  or 
curved  pattern,  was  of  old  red  brick,  upon  which 
the  sun  shone  genially.  A  clustering  wistaria 
vine  climbed  nearly  to  its  cornice,  and  above  the 
cornice  peeped  the  tops  of  some  slated  dormer 
windows.  The  whole  was  of  a  certain  warm 


BRAXTOWS  NEW  ART.  151 

and  friendly  air,  well  borne  out  by  the  condition 
of  things  within. 

There  were  few  transient  comers  among  the 
inmates.  The  tone  was  fixed  by  a  pleasant  set 
of  people  of  Southern  affinities  and  sufficient 
means  who  had  been  there  time  out  of  mind, 
and  talked  in  a  drowsy  way  about  the  superior 
ity  of  the  past  and  the  degeneracy  of  the  present 
day.  Retired  Mr.  Bolt  wood,  that  gentleman 
and  lawyer  of  the  old  school,  once  of  Alexan 
dria,  boasted  of  having  been  the  intimate  of 
Henry  Clay.  The  Dunsmore  family,  of  the 
Eastern  Shore,  Maryland,  had  had  daughters 
married,  and  Mr.  Greenway,  of  Prince  George's 
County,  buried  his  wife  from  there. 

The  habits  of  the  house  were  set  by  the  part 
of  its  occupants  engaged  in  official  business, 
and  its  routine  of  life  ticked  with  the  clocks  in 
government  offices.  This  part  comprised  Con 
gressmen  who  came  down  from  the  Capitol  to 
rehearse  at  table  —  sometimes  imprudently,  per 
haps  —  the  run  of  the  doings  of  national  mo 
ment  at  the  day's  session.  There  were  upper 
private  secretaries  and  clerks  of  committees,  and 
there  were  important  functionaries  from  the 
War,  State,  and  Interior  departments. 

And  tucked  into  a  modest  nook  among  these 
more  worshipful  personages  was  one  gentle  and 
pleasing  young  woman,  a  pretty  Treasury  girl, 


152  BRAXTOWS  NEW  ART. 

who  counted  fractional  currency  in  the  Bureau 
of  Redemption. 

Then  there  were  "  the  boys,"  a  group  of  ir 
repressible  fellows,  sons  of  the  house,  all  as  yet 
under  twenty-one,  but  a  part  already  in  the 
government  employ,  and  the  rest  prepared  to 
enter  it,  after  the  usual  destiny  of  Washington 
youth. 

Bob  and  Gus,  skylarking  as  aforesaid,  were 
now  joined  by  one  Aleck,  displaying  an  open 
note  of  invitation. 

"  Oh,  hush ! "  said  Aleck,  in  accent  and  phrase 
certainly  never  acquired  above  Mason  and  Dix- 
on's  line.  "  Are  you  all  going  to  the  Postmas 
ter-General's  blow-out  on  the  tenth  ?  " 

"You  shouldn't  say  'blow-out';  it's  bad 
French,"  returned  Bob  severely,  producing  a 
similar  note  of  invitation. 

Gus  produced  a  third  in  turn,  and  began  to 
execute  a  double-shuffle  of  pleased  anticipation. 
"  Terrapin  !  "  he  exclaimed ;  "  oh,  no.    Cham 
pagne  !  oh,  no ;  not  any." 

"  I  '11  dance  you  for  the  cup,"  said  Aleck, 
joining  him  in  this  athletic  exercise. 

But  Bob,  by  pushing  smartly  against  them, 
managed  to  overthrow  them  both  from  their 
balance  and  send  them  sprawling  upon  the  hair 
cloth  sofa.  They  were  rising  to  wreak  a  proper 
vengeance  for  this,  when  there  entered  brusquely 


BRAXTOWS  NEW  ART.  153 

a  fourth  member  of  the  clique,  in  the  person  of 
Morris  Howe,  son  of  the  quiet  Mr.  Howe  of  the 
Light-house  Board. 

"  Stop  raising  Cain  !  I  shall  have  to  disin 
herit  all  you  boys,"  he  began.  "  Why  were  n't 
you  on  the  Avenue  this  afternoon  ?  Every 
pretty  girl  in  town  was  out." 

The  others  now  paused  to  listen  with  interest 
to  what  he  might  have  to  report. 

"  By  the  way,"  he  went  on,  "  I  saw  old  man 
Braxton  ambling  along  in  the  crowd  and  look 
ing  at  the  people.  First  time  I  've  ever  seen 
him  outside  the  house  since  he  's  been  here." 

"  Oh,  you  'd  see  him  if  you  traveled  around 
the  outskirts  of  town,  as  I  used  to  do  when  I  had 
my  horse,"  said  Aleck.  "  I  used  to  ride  across 
the  Long  Bridge  over  Georgetown  way,  and  out 
to  old  Rock  Creek  Church  and  the  Soldiers' 
Home.  I  've  met  him  mooning  about  at  all 
those  places.  Seemed  to  be  examining  the  rocks 
and  brooks,  sampling  the  leaves,  and  so  on.  I 
passed  him  once  leaning  on  the  fence  at  the 
cross-road  out  there  by  Mount  Pleasant,  and 
looking  across  at  the  city  as  fixed  as  if  he  never 
meant  to  stir  again." 

"  What  does  he  do  ?  "  asked  Morris.  "  He 
certainly  is  not  in  any  of  the  departments,  since 
he  is  never  at  breakfast  before  nine,  and  I  al 
ways  hear  him  in  his  room  when  I  get  back  at 


154  BRAXTON'S  NEW  ART. 

three.     I  hear  him  nights  too.     I  believe  eating 
and  sleeping  are  no  great  objects  with  him  any 


way." 


"  He  's  prospecting  for  a  gold-mine,"  sug 
gested  one. 

"  Or  inventing  a  patent  medicine,"  said  an 
other. 

"  I  would  n't  wonder  if  it  was  a  patent  med 
icine,"  said  Gus.  "  He  used  to  bring  in  all 
sorts  of  curious-looking  traps,  thingumbob  bot 
tles  with  crooked  spouts  and  handles  to  them 
sticking  out  of  his  pockets.  Don't  you  all  re 
member  ?  " 

"  I  thought  it  was  a  drug  store  he  must  be 
keeping  somewhere,  one  while,"  said  Morris. 
"  I  've  smelled  drug-store  odors  from  his  room 
sometimes,  when  the  door  was  ajar  a  crack, 
strong  enough  to  knock  you  into  the  middle  of 
next  week." 

"  But  then  he  has  drawing  and  painting  traps 
in  there  too.  I  caught  sight  of  those  one  day," 
added  Gus. 

"  Say  we  ask  Miss  Mary  Dale,"  suggested 
Aleck.  "  She  can  get  it  out  of  him  if  anybody 
can.  She 's  probably  the  only  soul  in  the  house 
he  has  ever  spoken  to.  I  saw  him  give  her  some 
sort  of  a  curious  plant  he  brought  in  one  day. 
Oh,  she  's  a  sly  one,  with  that  sweet,  winning 
way  of  hers." 


BRAXTOWS  NEW  ART.  155 

"  If  he  's  getting  up  a  patent  medicine/'  said 
Bob,  "  Miss  Mary  Dale  had  better  go  for  him. 
There  's  big  money  in  it.  It 's  about  time  she 
stopped  wasting  herself  on  that  Treasury  De 
partment  ;  it 's  hard  lines  for  a  girl." 

"  Who  is  taking  my  name  in  vain?  "  asked  a 
pleasant  feminine  voice. 

Kindly  Mrs.  Commander  Glen  ham  —  for 
whose  relief  a  bill  was  now  pending  in  Con 
gress,  the  commander  having  imprudently  laid 
out  his  private  funds  for  government  account, 
before  his  death,  of  a  sudden  fever,  in  the  China 
seas  —  appeared  at  the  head  of  the  dining-room 
stairs.  She  had  under  her  wing  a  younger  com 
panion,  Miss  Mary  Dale.  It  was  this  latter 
who  spoke. 

She  was  quite  a  charming  person,  of  perhaps 
three  and  twenty,  with  brown  eyes,  of  the  kind 
a  certain  Oriental  poet  has  described  as  like 
the  sparkle  of  fountains  in  autumn.  She  was 
dressed  in  modest  black ;  seemed  to  pant  a  little 

from  the  exertion   of  mounting  the  stairs, 

though  she  was  a  slender  figure  enough,  —  and 
carried  in  her  hand  a  plate  on  which  were  an 
orange  and  some  cakes. 

The  two  ladies  came  forward  together  on  their 
way  toward  the  drawing-rooms,  and  Miss  Mary 
Dale,  taking  courage  apparently  from  her  com 
panionship,  demanded  further  of  the  boys,  with 


156  .        BRAXTON'S  NEW  ART. 

a  sweet  assumption  of  authority  added  to  a 
natural  manner  of  prepossessing  refinement,  to 
know  what  had  been  said  of  her.  They  were 
all  evidently  on  excellent  terms. 

"  'Deed  it  was  not  I.  'Deed  I  said  nothing," 
responded  the  disingenuous  Bob. 

Gus,  by  way  of  a  diversion,  upon  this,  seized 
the  orange  from  her  plate,  balanced  it  on  one 
finger,  and  tossed  it  to  Aleck,  saying :  — 

"  Presto !  change  !  All  done  by  sleight  of 
hand,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  and  perfectly  sim 
ple  when  you  understand  the  process." 

Miss  Dale  appealed  against  her  despoilers,  to 
her  protecting  matron.  "  It  is  of  a  peculiar 
kind,"  she  said,  "  and  Mrs.  Glenham  has  just 
given  it  to  me." 

"  My  time,  my  purse,  my  honor,  my  life  it 
self,  are  at  your  disposal,  Miss  Mary,"  said 
Bob,  into  whose  possession  the  fruit  had  now 
come,  "  but  not  this  luscious  product  of  the 
tropic  climes.  I  want  it  for  myself." 

"  Ah,  I  know  the  boys  of  old,"  sighed  Mrs. 
Commander  Glenham,  in  a  smiling  despair. 

They  were  passing  on,  to  leave  the  romping 
coterie  hopelessly  to  its  own  devices,  when  the 
front  door  once  more  opened,  and  he  who  had 
been  a  recent  subject  of  conversation  entered. 

"  Ah  !  here  is  Mr.  Braxton,"  said  Miss  Dale, 
addressing  herself  under  the  inspiration  of  the 


BRAXTON1 8  NEW  ART.  157 

moment,  with  a  kind  of  shy  or  demure  bravado, 
to  this  recluse  individual.  "  Perhaps  he  will 
help  us.  Please  make  the  boys  give  me  back 
my  orange,  Mr.  Braxton?  They  are  so  bad." 

The  latter  were  tantalizingly  playing  at  ball 
with  it  just  out  of  range  above  her  head.  "  Old 
man  "  Braxton  —  extraordinary  thing  that  it 
was  for  him,  who  had  scarcely  seemed  to  re 
mark  even  the  existence  of  most  of  his  fellow- 
occupants  —  suddenly  entered  into  the  spirit  of 
the  occasion.  He  caught  the  coveted  object 
with  a  kind  of  awkward  dexterity,  as  it  passed 
near  him,  and  with  a  bow  returned  it  to  its 
owner. 

"  Thank  you  so  much ! "  said  the  young 
woman.  "  You  are  an  admirable  champion.  I 
shall  appeal  to  you  again  when  I  have  wrongs 
to  be  redressed." 

"  I  shall  always  be  at  your  service,"  replied 
the  austere  Mr.  Braxton,  with  another  bow, 
most  courteous  and  urbane  in  intention,  but 
still  very  stiff  and  constrained. 

The  ladies  proceeded  on  their  way,  and  after 
a  moment  Mrs.  Glenham  went  to  her  room 
above  stairs.  In  the  parlor  Miss  Mary  Dale 
encountered  the  severe  glances  of  Mrs.  Chis- 
holm  of  Montgomery,  a  somewhat  snappish, 
eccentric  matron,  who  did  not  approve  of  her. 
She  bore  these  as  meekly  as  possible,  and,  go- 


158  BRAXTON'S  NEW  ART. 

ing  to  the  piano  in  a  corner,  sat  down  at  it 
and  began  to  finger  softly  the  Bluebeard  Lan 
cers. 

Mrs.  Chisholm  did  not  approve  of  her,  partly 
because  she  seemed  to  have  no  cousins  of  supe 
rior  note,  even  in  the  third  or  fourth  degree, 
and  partly  because  of  her  peculiar  situation  in 
the  house.  The  young  Treasury  girl  clerk  was 
there  under  the  general  a?gis  rather  than  that 
of  any  one  in  particular.  A  patroness  who  had 
brought  her  and  been  her  chaperon,  in  the  first 
instance,  had  been  obliged  to  depart  long  be 
fore,  and  had  left  her  to  her  own  resources. 
Even  the  influential  senator  through  whom 
she  had  procured  her  place  (at  sixty  dollars  a 
month)  in  the  Redemption  Bureau  was  dead. 
Should  superior  interest  now  be  made,  the  situ 
ation  might,  no  doubt,  at  any  time  be  taken 
from  her  and  conferred  upon  another  applicant. 
This  last  was  a  reflection,  in  fact,  by  which  Miss 
Mary  Dale  herself  was  not  a  little  troubled. 

Mrs.  Chisholm  sometimes  chose  to  speak  of 
her,  confidentially,  as  even  a  dangerous  person. 
Mrs.  Chisholm's  theory  of  her  was  that  neither 
her  father  (who  was  united  to  an  exceeding- 
ingly  amiable  second  wife)  nor  relatives,  who 
would  otherwise  have  offered  her  a  home,  could 
endure  her  bad  temper,  but  had,  on  the  con 
trary,  been  obliged  to  send  her  away. 


BRAXTOWS  NEW  ART.  159 

But  Mrs.  Chisholm's  opinions,  after  all,  car 
ried  no  great  weight  in  the  house.  The  pretty 
Treasury  girl  was,  in  fact,  the  daughter  of  a 
refined  family  of  Pennsylvania,  thrown  upon 
her  own  exertions  for  support  by  some  of  those 
calamities  into  which  it  is  not  necessary  to  go, 
but  which  happen  even  in  the  most  excellent 
of  families.  She  had  chosen  the  present  form 
of  livelihood  —  the  opportunity  offering  —  in 
preference  to  the  alternative  of  school-teaching. 
She  was  elastic  and  hopeful  of  nature,  turning 
instinctively  to  the  brighter  side  ;  blithe  and 
gently  gay  of  disposition ;  frank,  conscientious, 
and  industrious  in  a  score  of  little  feminine 
ways.  She  was  a  ray  of  genuine  sunshine  in 
the  house.  She  had  conciliated  to  herself 
friends  there,  after  the  loss  of  her  own  back 
ing.  Mrs.  Commander  Glenham  stood  by  her. 
Mrs.  Stone,  the  landlady,  cherished  her,  and 
they  two  had  not  a  few  confidences  together. 
Stylish  Miss  Wheelright,  daughter  of  the  Con 
gressman  of  that  name,  when  she  was  there, 
hung  about  her  admiringly  on  the  most  equal 
of  terms.  Even  Mrs.  Chisholm's  own  niece 
sought  the  company  of  the  disapproved-of  one, 
and  had  many  a  frown  of  discontent  at  the  in 
junctions  which  would  have  debarred  her  from 
it.  Miss  Mary  Dale,  by  prescriptive  right,  had 
come  to  enjoy  a  position  somewhat  like  that 


160  BRAXTON' S  NEW  ART. 

of  the  boys  (between  whom  and  herself  was 
a  sort  of  half-sisterly  sentiment),  as  a  child  of 
the  house  ;  and  she  might  much  less  easily  have 
been  spared  than  some  of  the  more  important 
inmates. 

The  incident  above  described  had  no  special 
significance,  further  than  that  it  served  to  break 
the  ice  and  pave  the  way  to  a  better  acquaint 
ance  with  "  old  man  "  Braxton. 

That  gentleman,  now  about  to  ascend  the 
stairs,  was  politely  invited  by  the  boys  to  stop 
and  "  take  a  smoke."  The  request  was  sec 
onded  by  Colonel  Brand,  the  chief  disbursing 
officer  of  the  Bureau  of  Ethereal  Claims,  a  vet 
eran  soldier  and  smoker,  who  at  the  same  time 
took  his  customary  chair  in  a  corner,  and  prof 
fered  a  cigar. 

Mr.  Braxton,  following  a  first  impulse,  de 
clined,  but  then  hesitated,  turned  back,  ac 
cepted,  and  sat  down  at  one  end  of  the  hair 
cloth  sofa. 

He  did  everything  uneasily,  and  sometimes 
with  a  constraint  painful  to  witness.  It  seemed 
bound  up  with  some  brooding  melancholy,  how 
ever,  rather  than  with  any  suspicion  of  a  pur 
pose  to  conceal  actions  that  might  not  be  hon 
orably  known.  He  was  a  man  under  thirty, 
and  yet  perhaps  appeared  older.  His  sad  ex 
pression,  somewhat  rounded  shoulders,  heavy 


BRAXTON' S  NEW  ART.  161 

gait,  and  a  certain  carelessness  in  dress,  though 
it  was  scrupulously  neat,  and  his  total  lack  of 
ardor  in  small  concerns  like  their  own,  had 
moved  the  boys  to  confer  upon  him  their  so 
briquet. 

They  were  no  respecters  of  persons  nor 
things.  From  the  hall  they  often  carried  the 
milder  forms  of  romping  into  the  parlor,  and 
talked  to  the  younger  ladies  there,  in  their  own 
parlance,  "  like  a  father  "  and  "  like  a  Dutch 
uncle."  They  had  seen  "  old  man  "  Braxton 
passing  mysteriously  in  and  out  among  them 
for  some  months,  carrying  curious  utensils  and 
acting  in  a  way  like  nobody  else.  They  were 
gentlemanly,  and  a  prying  curiosity  was  ta 
booed  from  their  simple  code  of  morals.  Never 
theless  it  was  but  natural  they  should  like  to 
know  what  manner  of  man  he  was,  and  what 
was  going  on.  The  subject  grew  in  interest 
as  they  turned  their  attention  to  it.  With 
the  brisk  confidence  of  their  years,  they  set  to 
work  to  make  his  acquaintance  and  find  him 
out. 

It  transpired  incidentally  in  this  interview 
that  Scott  Braxton  was  a  graduate,  many  years 
back,  of  the  University  of  Virginia;  that  he 
had  once  crossed  the  Plains  with  a  surveying 
party  ;  that  he  had  come  to  Washington  be 
cause  he  liked  the  climate.  He  was  also  of  a 
11 


162  BRAXTOWS  NEW  ART. 

Virginia  family  which  Mrs.  Chrishoim,  the  ge 
nealogist,  commented  on  with  favor. 

"  Saw  you  on  the  Avenue  this  afternoon," 
said  Morris,  passing  a  light. 

"  Yes,  I  was  there.  I  went  to  see  the  land 
scapes  at  Radfield's  picture  -  store.  It  is  too 
seldom  we  see  good  pictures  here." 

Ah,  pictures  were  a  principal  interest  with 
him,  then?  It  was  this  that  had  drawn  him 
out  of  his  shell  to-day  ?  the  boys  reflected.  But 
then  the  bottles  ? 

"  Wish  I  could  paint,"  said  Bob,  artfully. 
"  I  Ve  seen  you  at  it,  you  know." 

"  I  would  hardly  advise  anybody  to,"  said 
Mr.  Scott  Braxton.  "  There  are  so  many  of 
great  merit  even  in  this  country,  to  say  noth 
ing  of  the  excellence  of  the  Europeans,  that 
the  prospect  for  anybody  without  talent  of  the 
highest  order  is  far  from  encouraging."  He 
sighed.  "  Not  that  I  mean  to  reflect  upon  the 
kind  of  talent  you  would  no  doubt  possess,"  he 
added  pleasantly. 

Colonel  Brand,  who  had  sedate  opinions,  be 
tween  his  puffs  of  smoke,  on  almost  all  sub 
jects,  threw  in  a  hopeful  remark  from  his  corner 
about  the  future  of  American  art. 

"  The  only  hope  of  —  of  some  people,"  re 
turned  Braxton,  "  is  in  some  startling  new  in 
vention,  some  inspiring  discovery,  to  change 


BRAXTON'S  NEW  ART.  163 

the  whole  face  of  things.  What  if  new  theo 
ries  of  color  were  demonstrated  ? "  he  said, 
moving  about  excitedly  in  his  chair.  "  That 
is  —  what  if  some  person  of  our  own  country, 
of  this —  of  these  times  should  do  it  ?  " 

Miss  Dale  was  heard  singing  in  the  parlor  at 
this  moment  a  ballad  to  a  slow,  plaintive  waltz 
measure,  — 

"  When  the  leaves  begin  to  turn, 

And  the  summer  days  are  done  ; 
"When  the  roses  fade  and  die  "  — 

Whether  it  was  this  that  recalled  Scott  Brax- 
ton  to  something  he  had  forgotten,  or  only  that 
he  had  caught  himself  being  run  away  with,  he 
finished  his  speech  lamely,  blushed,  and  said 
he  thought  he  had  better  go  up-stairs  and  look 
after  his  fire. 

The  boys  exchanged  glances  and  whistled 
shrewdly  to  themselves.  His  fire  —  at  the  be 
ginning  of  June  ? 

II. 

When  "old  man"  Braxton  reached  his  room, 
he  applied  the  key  to  an  intricate  private  lock 
he  had  caused  to  be  placed  upon  the  door,  en 
tered,  sat  down  upon  a  rather  quaint,  chintz- 
covered  chair,  and  gazed  at  his  own  troubled 
face  in  a  mirror  by  the  window,  before  which 
he  chanced  to  find  himself. 


164  BRAXTON'S  NEW  ART. 

He  had  chosen  this  apartment  in  the  attic, 
illumined  by  a  large  dormer  window,  for  the 
better  light  and  the  privacy.  He  admitted  to 
it  none  but  himself,  and  was  here  carrying  on 
a  singular  labor. 

"  To  work  !  "  he  said,  —  "  to  work  !  I  was 
losing  time  in  unprofitable  gossip.  What  has 
come  over  me  to-day  ?  " 

But  again  his  despondent  face  in  the  glass 
arrested  him. 

"  I  certainly  need  success  in  this,"  he  said, 
"  What  else  is  left  to  me  ?  I  must,  I  will  suc 
ceed,  or  there  is  no  justice  in  heaven.  It  is  a 
beautiful  world ;  am  I  to  have  no  part  in  it  ? 
Have  I  my  aspirations  for  fame,  for  love,  for 
happiness,  like  the  rest,  only  to  be  forever 
balked  in  them  ?  I  have  been  honest,  I  have 
worked,  I  have  injured  no  man  knowingly. 
Bah,  Pharisee !  thou  art  not  as  other  men,"  he 
broke  off,  mockingly,  and  went  to  inspect  a  de 
coction  simmering  on  the  fire  in  a  copper  pot. 

There  was,  in  fact,  a  small  stove  or  furnace, 
with  a  steady  fire,  in  the  room,  even  on  this  hot 
summer  day. 

The  apartment  was  of  some  size,  not  uncom 
fortable  in  aspect,  but  decidedly  bizarre  for  the 
place.  The  occupant  had  an  appreciation  of 
color,  if  the  flowered  chintz  coverings,  including 
a  canopy  to  the  old  "  four-poster  "  bed,  and  the 


BRAXTON'S  NEW  ART.  165 

rich  barred  table-spread  were  of  his  providing. 
There  were  a  couple  of  tall  blue  vases,  a  piece 
of  armor,  a  carved  oak-chest,  a  lay  figure,  easels, 
and  a  pair  of  Indian  clubs,  for  which  his  hollow 
ing  chest  would  have  been  the  better  had  they 
not  been  allowed  to  disappear  under  an  increas 
ing  cover  of  dust. 

In  one  corner  were  canvases,  and  charcoal  and 
crayon  drawings,  in  large  variety,  tacked  upon 
the  walls.  In  another  were  an  air-pump,  mi 
croscope,  electric  batteries,  crucibles,  spirit- 
lamps,  blow-pipes,  and  the  small  furnace.  In 
one  corner  he  would  decidedly  have  been  pro 
nounced  artist ;  in  the  other  chemist,  or  even 
alchemist. 

What  is  his  singular  occupation  ?  He  pulls 
out  an  old  memorandum-book  from  a  mass  of 
papers  among  which  he  is  searching,  and  drops 
down  to  inspect  it.  Let  us  look  on  as  he  reads 
from  one  of  its  pages  in  a  soliloquizing  wav. 

MEM. LANDSCAPES    OF    CHANGEABLE    COLORS. 

To  examine  why  the  vegetation  of  nature  changes 
from  pale  and  tender  greens  in  spring  to  full  deep 
greens  in  summer,  and  red,  yellow,  purple,  and  russet 
in  autumn  ? 

Is  it  the  action  of  the  atmosphere  on  a  delicate  col 
oring  matter  contained  in  the  sap  ? 

Might  not  this  coloring  matter,  if  so,  be  extracted 
without  destroying  its  properties  ? 


166  BRAXTOWS  NEW  ART. 

Might  it  not  be  possible  to  combine  with  it  a  very 
sensitive  medium  or  varnish,  and  paint  landscapes  so 
susceptible  to  the  action  of  the  atmosphere  as  to 
change  with  the  seasons,  as  actual  landscapes  change? 

"  Here  it  is  !  "  he  says.  "  How  little  I  thought 
when  I  put  down  this  entry,  as  a  passing  fancy, 
in  university  days,  that  I  should  ever  be  actually 
engaged  in  trying  to  carry  it  into  effect !  What 
would  the  university  men  think  of  me  now? 
Ah,  well !  they  have  all  gone  their  way,  and 
left  me  astern.  Each  to  his  own  method  for 
fame  and  fortune  !  If  I  could  but  cease  think 
ing  of  the  rewards  of  success.  It  paralyzes  me. 
Ah,  well,  this  is  not  work  either."  And  again 
he  resumed  his  occupations. 

And  this  was  the  drug-store  that  Mr.  Scott 
Braxton  kept ;  this  the  gold-mine,  the  patent 
medicine  of  which  he  was  in  search. 

It  was  many  years  since  he  had  left  college. 
He  had  established  for  himself  even  there  the 
reputation  of  a  person  with  some  curious  kinks 
in  his  brain.  He  had  since  tried  business  and 
a  learned  profession,  and  failed.  He  had  been 
left  to  himself,  traveled,  and  dissipated  in  his 
trials  a  good  share  of  a  moderate  property  that 
had  fallen  to  him.  He  was  long  confident  that 
he  should  find  the  right  thing  at  last,  but  later 
on  was  not  so  confident.  He  had  always  had 
a  certain  taste  for  the  fine  arts,  and  beautiful 


BRAXTOWS  NEW  ART.  167 

shapes  and  colors  gave  him  intense  pleasure. 
Something  turned  his  attention  especially  that 
way  at  last,  and  he  asked  himself :  "  Why  not 
be  an  artist  ?  It  will  give  me  license  at  least  to 
be  different  from  others,  and  who  knows  but  it 
is  my  true  vocation." 

He  went  at  art  thereupon,  but  was  not  con 
tent  with  the  usual  slow  and  patient  steps.  The 
crotchet  took  him  of  some  highly  original  stroke. 
He  must  regain  the  distance,  rapidly  lengthen 
ing,  between  him  and  the  companions  of  his 
former  life,  by  some  brilliant,  new  achievement 
which  should  lift  him  far  above  and  beyond 
the  ranks  of  ordinary  men. 

Some  may  recollect,  but  probably  very  few, 
his  effort  to  create  a  distinctive  "  American 
art."  This  was  to  be  done  by  idealizing  modern 
industrial  science.  He  endeavored  to  glorify 
and  give  a  sort  of  personality  to  machinery. 
He  had  in  his  pictures  locomotives,  trip-ham 
mers,  steam-dredgers,  and  steam-harvesters ;  he 
had  pale  girls  among  a  tangle  of  spinning-jen 
nies,  and  grimy  mechanics  in  dusky  boiler-shops. 
These  works  were  not  often  admitted  to  the 
exhibitions.  There  were  touches  of  good  in 
them,  —  here  and  there  a  pleasing  figure  or  an 
effect  of  light,  —  but  they  were  mainly  crude 
and  callow.  The  public  resolutely  refused  to 
associate  its  interest  in  the  subjects,  but  pro- 


168  BRAXTON-S  NEW  ART. 

nounced  them  "  barbaric  yawps  "  after  the  in 
expressible. 

This  ambition  o'erleaped  itself.  Its  author 
retired  into  seclusion,  growing  more  aud  more 
morose,  but  eating  his  heart  out  with  a  fiercer 
determination  than  ever. 

At  length  came  up  again  this  last  idea  of 
his,  original  indeed.  He  had  revived  an  early 
whim,  and  now  persuaded  himself  that  it  was 
actually  capable  of  realization.  He  had  made 
himself  chemist  and  botanist  for  ks  sake,  had 
withdrawn  from  all  other  pursuits  of  his  life, 
left  his  home,  and  labored  at  it  indefatigably 
for  months. 

Shall  I  describe  here  his  processes  ?  Shall  I 
enter  upon  his  confused  heaps  of  memoranda, 
often  written  upon  random  scraps,  and  little  in 
telligible  ?  Shall  I  open  his  large  volumes  of 
record,  showing  the  composition  of  colors,  the 
effect  of  chemicals  upon  one  another,  and  of 
various  forces  upon  them  ?  It  would  not  be  an 
easy  task.  He  was  himself  far  from  a  method 
ical  person.  He  murmurs  even  now  as  he  looks 
round  at  the  bulk  of  his  labored  accumulations : 

"  What  disorder  here !  Perhaps  I  should 
have  somebody  to  help  me."  —  "  The  young 
Treasury  girl  is  very  pleasant,"  he  adds  pres 
ently,  perhaps  with  no  very  close  connection  of 
thought  between  the  two. 


BRAXTOWS  NEW  ART.  169 

He  picks  up  a  volume  of  the  writings  of  an 
ancient  alchemist,  —  not  that  he  has  faith  in 
those  gentry ;  he  would  scorn  it  in  these  days 
of  exact  scientific  research.  It  is  a  volume  of 
his  bric-a-brac,  which  he  bought  when  not  able 
to  contain  a  certain  feeling  of  likeness  between 
them  and  himself,  in  his  peculiar  pursuit.  He 
falls  upon  a  passage  which  insists  upon  the 
necessity  of  a  preliminary  ingredient,  of  the 
second  rank,  and  absolutely  necessary  to  be 
found  before  the  great  secret  itself,  the  elixir  of 
life,  or  philosopher's  stone,  as  the  case  may  be, 
could  be  discovered.  This  was  called,  in  mystic 
parlance,  sometimes  "  the  ferment  of  Luna  for 
the  red"  and  sometimes  "  the  ferment  of  Luna 
for  the  white  —  having  found  which  you  will  re 
joice" 

The  one  preliminary  which  had  sometimes  of 
late  seemed  to  Scott  Braxton  important  before 
all  others  was  that  of  some  sympathetic  mind  to 
freely  confide  in,  one  also  who  would  help  him 
to  keep  his  traps  in  order. 

"  The  money  might  be  measured  out,  I  sup 
pose,  to  last  for  two,"  he  mutters  again,  and 
then  dismisses  these  unprofitable  ideas. 

He  set  to  work  to  brew,  ferment,  distill,  and 
extract  essences,  as  of  old.  He  was  utilizing  in 
his  labors  plants  growing  in  his  windows  and  a 
dried  collection  like  a  housewife's  herbarium. 


170  BRAXTOWS  NEW  ART. 

He  brought  back  every  day  fresh  leaves  and 
barks  gathered  in  his  walks.  He  produced 
vacuums  and  electric  and  magnetic  currents, 
generated,  combined,  and  decomposed  vapors. 
He  kept  his  vigil  far  into  the  night ;  then  threw 
himself  exhausted  on  his  bed,  and  dreamed  till 
morning  an  interminable  chemical  dream. 


III. 

The  acquaintance  of  Scott  Braxton  had  to  be 
made  all  over  again  by  the  boys  next  day,  so 
completely  had  he  retired  once  more  into  his 
shell. 

Still,  by  degrees,  after  the  step  accomplished, 
his  moroseness  was  dissipated,  his  character 
mellowed  to  a  certain  extent ;  he  began  to  join 
the  after-dinner  smokers  in  the  hall,  and  yield 
himself  to  society.  The  toilsome  effort  in  which 
he  was  engaged,  to  tell  the  truth,  was  passing 
the  limits  of  human  endurance,  and  he  felt 
driven  almost  in  spite  of  himself  to  the  relief  of 
companionship. 

The  careless  rattle  of  the  boys  diverted  him, 
drew  him  out  of  himself.  No  greater  contrast 
in  type  than  he  and  they  could  be  imagined. 
He  even  recalled  some  quaint,  humorous  stories 
of  his  own,  which  he  told  in  a  shy  way.  His 
interest  in  such  matters  seemed  to  have  to  come 


BRAXTOWS  NEW  ART.  171 

back  from  a  very  long  way  off.  Finding  that 
Colonel  Brand  had  a  fancy  for  collecting  things 
about  the  alchemists,  he  gave  him  the  volume 
of  his  own. 

"  The  alchemists,"  maintained  Colonel  Brand 
stoutly,  "  were  in  search  of  wisdom,  and  not  a 
tangible  philosopher's  stone." 

"  Then  the  other  was  mere  child's  play,"  said 
Scott  Braxton. 

The  boys  asked  him  to  walk  with  one,  then 
another,  and  explained  to  him  common  things 
about  Washington,  where  he  seemed  to  have 
lived  in  a  kind  of  daze.  They  took,  in  their 
way,  a  fancy  to  him,  and  were  somehow  sorry 
for  him.  Once  they  even  had  a  rowing  expedi 
tion  together  on  the  Potomac,  above  the  Chain 
Bridge. 

All  this  threw  him  much  in  contact  too  with 
Miss  Mary  Dale,  and  the  boys  seconded  the  as 
sociation  as  much  as  possible.  They  seemed  to 
make  up  their  minds  that  it  was  a  benevolent 
enterprise  to  bring  the  two  together. 

Still  it  was  not  known  what  Braxton  did  for 
a  living. 

"It's  patent  medicine,  as  sure  as  a  gun," 
cried  Morris  again,  one  day,  when  an  intenser 
aromatic  odor  than  usual  pervaded  the  upper 
regions.  This  was  a  day  when  the  eccentric 
neighbor  alongside  had  let  fall  and  broken  a 
bottle  of  his  most  costly  chemicals. 


172  BRAXTOWS  NEW  ART. 

They  asked  Miss  Mary  Dale. 

"  How  should  /know?  "  she  replied,  coloring. 
"  You  should  not  be  so  inquisitive.  He  is  not 
very  well.  He  is  interested  in  scientific  things. 
It  would  be  better  for  you  boys  if  you  had  more 
to  occupy  yourselves  with  too." 

Did  she  yet  know  ?  Perhaps.  It  is  certain 
that  she  had  seen  the  interior  of  his  room.  That 
came  out  upon  information  of  the  landlady,  who 
accompanied  her  there  on  a  certain  occasion. 

One  day  there  had  been  a  great  clattering  in 
the  upper  hall.  The  scuttle  was  thrown  open 
and  a  flood  of  white  light  let  into  the  obscuri 
ties  below.  Workmen  were  there  who  had  re 
pairs  to  make  on  the  roof.  Mrs.  Stone  directed 
them,  and  Miss  Dale  had  chanced  to  accompany 
her  in  friendly  companionship.  All  at  once  the 
closed  door  of  Braxton's  room,  jarred  by  the 
trampling,  swung  back,  as  is  sometimes  the  way 
of  doors  in  old  houses,  of  its  own  accord,  and 
disclosed  the  recluse  at  his  work.  Miss  Dale 
was  at  the  moment  at  its  very  threshold. 

"  Will  you  not  come  in  ?  "  he  asked  politely, 
rising  and  responding  to  her  look  of  evident 
interest. 

Mrs.  Stone,  an  imperturbable  person  who 
saw  little  and  wondered  at  less,  provided  only 
her  dues  were  paid,  joined  her,  and  was  in 
cluded  in  the  invitation.  The  two  entered,  and 


BRAXTOWS  NEW  ART.  173 

the  girl,  thus  freed  from  timidity,  indulged  in 
some  of  those  sprightly  ways,  the  quick-darting, 
and  discovering  traits  characteristic  of  the  fem 
inine  sex  in  the  bachelor's  apartment. 

"  What  an  extremely  odd  room  ! "  she  ex 
claimed.  "  And  how  attractive  !  "  in  a  compli 
mentary  tone.  "  I  like  all  these  things." 

She  was  shown  by  the  host  some  of  his 
sketches,  bric-a-brac,  and  miscellaneous  prop 
erties. 

"  What  are  you  doing  here  ?  "  sprang  invol 
untarily  from  her  lips.  That  very  instant  she 
repented  and  would  have  choked  the  words 
back,  but  it  was  too  late. 

"  Growing  plants,  for  one  thing,"  he  an 
swered  evasively. 

He  led  the  way  to  the  window  and  showed 
two  small  rose-trees  in  pots. 

"  This,"  he  said,  indicating  a  creamy  white 
rose,  "  is  nourished  exclusively  upon  milk.  And 
upon  this,"  showing  one  of  a  rich  dark  crimson, 
"  I  pour  red  wine  every  day." 

He  was  going  to  detach  for  her  the  principal 
blossoms  from  each,  but  she  strenuously  opposed 
the  gift. 

"  Why  not  ?  "  he  asked.  "  I  attach  no  im 
portance  to  them.  It  is  a  mere  whim.  I 
wanted  to  see  what  they  would  do.  It  is  not 
my  principal  work,  I  assure  you.  —  Once  I  tried 


174  BRAXTON'S  NEW  ART. 

an  ink-flower  also,  but  that  was  a  very  short 
lived  experiment.     The  ink  killed  it." 

"  What  could  they  do  ?  "  she  asked,  sticking 
to  the  point.  "What  were  you  expecting  of 
them  ?  " 

"  As  to  that,  I  can  hardly  say.  If  I  had  de 
veloped  some  peculiarly  rare  and  choice  flower, 
in  my  milk-white  rose,  I  should  have  consid 
ered  it  suitable,  say  for  brides  and  occasions  of 
the  purest  and  most  innocent  gayety.  You  see 
there  is  little  effect  as  yet  —  it  is  city  milk," 
he  added,  with  a  touch  of  humor.  "  My  wine- 
rose,  on  the  other  hand,  would  have  been  suit 
able  for  the  heated  brows  of  wild  bacchantes." 

"  But  plants  do  not  flourish  on  the  same  sus 
tenance  that  is  good  for  men,"  urged  his  vis 
itor.  "  On  the  contrary,  it  is  carbonic  acid,  the 
very  poison  that  we  throw  off,  which  furnishes 
their  life,  while  they,  in  turn,  set  free  the  oxy 
gen  so  necessary  to  us." 

"  Are  you  a  botanist  ?  "  asked  Braxton  with 
interest. 

"  To  a  very  slight  extent.  I  would  like  to 
be.  —  But  now  your  ink-flower  ?  "  she  went  on. 

"  Oh,  that,  if  it  had  succeeded,  would  have 
been  worn  in  the  button-holes  of  tired  workers 
with  the  brain.  Perhaps  its  aroma  would  have 
contained  the  subtle  germs  of  ideas,  or  given 
rise  to  occult  inspirations." 


BRAXTON'S  NEW  ART.  175 

The  young  woman  looked  at  his  small  array 
of  books,  all  of  a  peculiar  sort,  —  De  Candolle 
on  the  Color  of  Plants,  Bohm,  Fremy,  Lawson 
on  Chlorophyl,  Corti  on  the  Movement  of  Sap. 
Some  were  in  the  original  foreign  tongues,  for 
he  had  become  a  linguist,  too,  in  the  pursuit  of 
his  aim. 

"  But  you  should  have  your  table  here,  the 
book -case  on  this  side,  the  cabinet  here,  it 
seems  to  me,"  said  Miss  Mary  Dale.  "  That 
would  be  more  convenient." 

With  two  or  three  of  the  changes  so  deftly 
indicated  carried  out,  there  was  already  a  vast 
improvement  and  economy  of  space.  The  re 
cipient  of  these  services  looked  gratefully  after 
his  visitor  when  she  went,  and  took  an  air  of 
deep  reflection. 

Not  long  subsequent  to  this  his  real  scheme 
was  disclosed  to  her.  She  had  asked  him,  re 
ferring  to  what  has  just  been  described :  — 

"  Have  you  any  more  singular  ideas  ?  " 

"A  few,"  he  replied.  He  outlined  to  her 
a  project  for  a  universal  language,  and  another 
for  a  system  of  musical  notation  with  exquisite 
forms  and  colors,  so  that  the  pleasures  from  all 
three  sources  were  to  be  united  in  one. 

"  I  fear  you  are  too  much  alone  ;  you  are 
morbid,"  she  said,  studying  him  with  a  glance 
of  peculiar  concern. 


176  BRAXTON' S  NEW  ART. 

Then,  to  defend  himself,  and  as  by  way  of 
showing  that  he  was  not  a  mere  unpractical 
visionary,  and  because  he  was  longing  for  sym 
pathy,  as  we  have  seen,  he  took  her  fully  into 
his  confidence. 

Thereafter  they  had  this  secret  in  common 
between  them. 

The  session  of  the  legislative  branch  of  the 
Government  now  came  to  an  end,  and  the 
Congressmen  and  other  important  people  went 
away,  leaving  the  house  quieter.  The  boys  re 
mained,  it  is  true,  but  their  interest  in  "  old 
man "  Braxton  had  by  this  time  subsided. 
They  voted  him  a  good  fellow  enough,  and 
began  to  take  him  as  a  matter  of  course. 

Miss  Dale  and  the  inventor  were  observed  to 
be  much,  together,  of  evenings,  in  the  parlors. 
They  withdrew  to  remote  corners  and  conversed 
in  low  tones,  or  sometimes  read  to  each  other. 
Once  Braxton  drew  her  portrait,  a  fairly  good 
one.  Most  sprightly  young  women  were  not 
very  considerate  to  him ;  he  was  "  not  their 
style."  But  this  one  was  highly  appreciative, 
seemed  to  ignore  entirely  whatever  there  was 
of  awkwardness  and  constraint  in  his  ways,  and 
extended  the  interest  of  a  mind,  itself  active, 
and  fond  of  the  curious,  new,  and  thoughtful, 
to  his  ideas.  Mrs.  Chisholm  pronounced  her 
more  dangerous  than  ever. 


BRAXTON'S  NEW  ART.  177 

It  was  not  that  Miss  Dale  became  on  the  in 
stant  a  convert  to  Mr.  Scott  Braxton's  project. 
On  the  contrary,  they  argued  it  at  length. 

"  Would  such  pictures  be  anything  more 
than  a  mere  trick  and  plaything,"  she  asked, 
"  even  if  they  did  succeed  ?  " 

He  showed  almost  a  touch  of  offense  at  this. 
He  had  idealized  his  conception.  He  described 
to  her  the  delicious  pictures  he  fancied  under 
his  system. 

"  I  conceive  them,"  he  said,  "  changing  and 
full  of  a  subtile  mystery  as  bringing  in  some 
thing  like  the  genuine  breath  of  nature  upon 
our  walls.  Contrast  them  with  the  ordinary 
fixed,  immovable  scenes  that  we  now  have,  at 
which,  after  a  sufficient  familiarity  with  them, 
we  almost  cease  to  look,  however  much  we  may 
have  liked  them  in  the  beginning.  On  the 
other  hand,  these  new  ones,  likely  to  differ 
every  time  they  were  approached,  would  retain 
the  charm  of  perpetual  freshness  and  novelty." 

"  They  would  have  to  be  landscapes,  of 
course  ?  You  could  not  have  figures,  build 
ings,  and  the  like  ?  " 

"  Landscapes,  of  course." 

"  You  have  your  young  and  tender  greens  in 

the  spring,  your  dark  greens  in  the   summer, 

and  your  russets  in  the  autumn.     What  do  you 

do  for  the  winter  ?     You  can  hardly  make  your 

12 


178  BRAXTON'S  NEW  ART. 

leaves  fall  and  a  mantle  of  snow  appear  upon 
the  ground." 

"  I  have  thought  of  that.  They  would  be  ar 
rested  by  the  winter.  Perhaps  they  will  have 
to  be  put  away  during  the  winter,  their  period 
having  run  down,  like  that  of  a  clock.  Or, 
again,  they  might  stand  during  that  time  as 
ordinary  landscapes,  in  their  late  autumn  as 
pect.  Only  on  some  rare  days  of  a  mild  tern* 
perature  they  might  stir  again  with  the  pre 
monition  of  the  new  spring." 

"  And  you  might  paint  in  enough  evergreens, 
among  the  other  foliage,  in  the  ordinary  way, 
to  keep  always  an  agreeable  contrast,"  said  his 
auditor,  contributing  a  point  to  the  scheme. 

He  thanked  her  with  a  grateful  glance. 

"  But  in  the  succeeding  spring  itself,"  she 
continued,  "  would  they  not  have  totally  run 
down,  so  that  they  could  never  renew  their 
rounds  again  ?  You  could  not  expect  to  make 
them  last  forever  ?  " 

"I  should  hope  to  make  the  medium  sensi 
tive  enough,  so  that  they  would  go  on  a  long 
time.  Very  few  things  do  last  forever." 

"  But  there  is  a  difference  in  the  texture  as 
well  as  in  the  colors  of  foliage  at  different  sea 
sons.  Leaves  are  coarser  in  summer  than  in 
spring,"  she  objected. 

"  Ah,  Miss   Doubting  Thomas !  "  answered 


BRAXTON'S  NEW  ART.  179 

the  inventor,  "  I  can  give  only  a  suggestion  of 
nature,  not  nature  itself;  no  painting  can  do 
that.  I  shall  convince  you  yet." 

He  often  tapped  his  forehead  sagely  at  the 
mention  of  obstacles,  saying:  "I  shall  meet 
that  —  I  shall  meet  that." 

"  It  is  my  passion  to  be  known,  to  do  some 
thing  out  of  the  common,"  he  told  her.  "  I 
cannot  understand  those  who  are  content  to  go 
on  in  the  ordinary  humdrum  way." 

By  degrees  the  fair  young  Treasury  clerk 
was  impressed.  She  was  not  a  profound  mind, 
and  she  had  never  known  the  sanguine  class  of 
inventors.  By  little  and  little  all  this  scientific 
talk  and  array  of  experiment  produced  its  ef 
fect.  Money,  and  the  assiduous  effort  of  a  man 
otherwise  intelligent  and  worthy,  were  being 
put  into  the  scheme.  That  could  not  be  for 
nothing.  She  gave  him  a  large  measure  of  her 
faith,  and  his  scheme  a  dim  admiration. 

They  investigated  matters  of  detail  together. 
Braxton  made  her  see  how  chlorophyl,  the  mi 
nute  green  granules  in  the  fibre  of  plants,  is  at 
the  basis  of  all.  He  dissolved  it  from  leaves, 
in  alcohol  or  ether,  obtaining  a  residuum  partly 
wax  and  partly  a  peculiar  substance  allied  to 
indigo. 

It  was  found,  he  said,  with  dextrine,  gum, 
and  sugar  in  the  original  cellulose  or  germ-cell 


180  BRAXTOWS  NEW  ART. 

of  the  plant,  and  its  color  was  not  always  green. 
It  occurred  in  but  small  quantity,  yet  was  the 
active  agent  in  decomposing  the  carbonic  acid, 
and  converting  the  other  gases  into  organic  mat 
ter  for  vegetable  life.  He  hoped  much  for  his 
purpose  from  its  intense  energy. 

Under  his  microscope  he  showed  how  the 
dark  green  of  the  upper  layer  of  a  leaf  is  due 
to  the  closer  crowding  together  there  than  be 
low  of  chlorophyl  cells.  He  exhibited  in  the 
leaf  the  multitude  of  openings  through  which 
it  breathes  and  acts  upon  the  crude  sap.  It 
draws  up  from  below  instead  of  drinking  in  the 
rain  from  above,  as  is  the  popular  superstition. 

They  followed  the  course  of  the  sap  in  the 
green  layer  of  the  bark ;  the  laws  of  growth  ; 
the  rigid  mathematical  adaptation  of  the  sys 
tem  of  leaves  in  each  separate  plant,  set  at  hap 
hazard  though  they  seem.  The  occupation,  so 
far,  was  surely  an  ennobling  one  in  itself. 

A  few  times  Scott  Braxton  had  joined  Mary 
Dale  after  her  official  tasks,  and  had  walked 
home  with  her  down  the  long  wide  stretch  of 
Pennsylvania  Avenue.  At  one  end  the  vista 
was  closed  by  the  white-colonnaded  pile  of  the 
Capitol ;  at  the  other  by  the  vast  granite  Treas 
ury.  The  street,  with  all  its  awnings  out,  was 
sultry,  almost  Oriental,  in  the  hot  midsummer 
afternoons. 


BRAXTOWS  NEW  ART.  181 

He  ventured  now,  finally,  into  the  Treasury 
itself,  where  the  feminine  employees  are  to  be 
seen  strolling  with  blue  and  green  veils  over 
their  heads  in  the  long,  dim  corridors  at  lunch 
time.  He  met  there  his  friend,  made  an  ap 
pointment  with  her,  and  returned,  much  agi 
tated,  after  office  hours.  They  strolled  first 
through  the  grounds  of  the  White  House,  and 
then  to  the  small  Lafayette  Park,  across  the 
way,  where  they  sat  down  upon  a  bench. 

Braxton  held,  as  it  chanced,  a  section  of 
young  maple  wood,  showing  the  successive  rings 
of  its  development. 

"  The  tree  grows  from  within  outward,"  he 
began.  "  After  a  time  the  heart  ceases  to  grow, 
solidifies,  and  is  dead.  I  have  looked  up  to  the 
sky  through  the  heart  of  a  great  tree  entirely 
hollow,  from  the  outer  sap-wood  of  which, 
nevertheless,  sprung  leaves  and  branches.  So 
it  may  be  with  a  man,  if  he  give  his  attention 
too  exclusively  to  external  things." 

Upon  this  preamble,  he  made  her  an  ardent 
proposal.  He  had  a  certain  far-off,  absent  look 
even  in  the  midst  of  his  devotion.  His  work 
was  the  main  thing,  after  all.  It  was  chiefly 
an  aid  in  his  work  that  he  wanted.  He  had 
strongly  felt  that  with  a  little  wife  and  house 
of  his  own,  the  probability  of  an  early  success 
in  his  project  would  be  greatly  enhanced.  He 


182  BRAXTOWS  NEW  ART. 

said  to  himself,  "  I  will  measure  out  the  money 
for  two.  It  will  carry  us  through  ;  and  there 
is  no  one  I  would  rather  share  it  with  than 
her." 

As  to  the  recipient  of  this  offer  of  marriage, 
she  had  been  browbeaten  that  day  by  the  chief 
of  her  bureau.  It  was  often  so,  and  it  was  but 
a  wearisome,  dragging  life  at  best.  She  liked 
Braxton,  respected  his  persistent  industry,  and 
even  his  self -absorption  at  her  expense,  and 
they  had  got  on  wonderfully  well  in  their 
friendly  companionship.  She  was  greatly  sur 
prised  at  his  offer,  and  she  —  accepted  it. 

The  young  alchemist  had  secured  his  princi 
pal  ingredient.  He  had  secured,  he  might  have 
assured  himself,  —  from  the  charming,  confused 
play  of  colors  in  her  complexion, — "the  fer 
ment  of  Luna,"  both  for  the  "  red  "  and  the 
"  white." 

"  He  is  so  odd,  dear,"  was  her  landlady's 
smiling  comment  on  the  news.  Mrs.  Chisholm 
thought  Miss  Dale  —  for  having  ensnared  this 
scion  of  a  highly  respected  family !  —  now  at 
last  utterly  abandoned. 

There  was  a  regular  wedding,  quite  soon,  at 
a  neighboring  church.  The  boys,  among  the 
rest,  voted  to  attend  the  ceremony  in  a  body. 
They  placed  themselves  in  a  pew  adjoining 
one  full  of  boarding-school  girls  —  who  had 


BRAXTON'S  NEW  ART.  183 

likewise  been  casually  attracted  in  by  the  genial 
bustle. 

As  the  principals  were  rather  long  in  making 
their  appearance,  Bob  conducted  a  dumb-show 
of  being  the  groom,  solemn,  nervous,  in  broad 
cloth  and  high  collar  ;  then  of  being  the  bride, 
modest,  drooping,  yet  coquettish,  in  her  long 
veil  and  wreath  of  orange  blossoms.  Whereat 
the  boarding-school  girls  were  convulsed,  and 
people  looked  inquiringly.  Aleck  gave  his 
blessing,  as  ostensible  clergyman,  to  the  rest. 
Gus  announced  his  intention  of  going  out  to 
play  on  the  organ  himself,  but  saying,  again, 
that  the  G  string  was  broken,  concluded  to 
abandon  the  project. 

But  just  then  the  organist  struck  up  Men 
delssohn's  Grand  March,  the  bridal  party  en 
tered,  and  the  boys,  to  do  them  justice,  behaved 
most  commendably  throughout  all  the  rest  of 
the  proceedings. 

IV. 

The  young  couple  spent  some  time  in  a 
honeymoon  which  included  visits  to  some  rela 
tives  on  both  sides.  Then  they  returned,  and 
took  a  vacant  cottage  in  Mount  Pleasant,  a 
pretty  suburb,  inhabited  chiefly  by  politic  gov 
ernment  clerks  who  had  succeeded  in  making 
themselves  fixtures  under  successive  Adminis 
trations. 


184  BRAXTOWS  NEW  ART. 

When  it  had  been  intimated  to  one  of  them, 
for  instance,  that  the  Administration  was  about 
to  change,  he  said  :  — 

"  I  should  like  to  see  any  Administration 
change  quicker  than  I  can  ;  that 's  all." 

Nothing  could  be  more  charming  than  the 
new  bride  in  her  quiet,  fresh,  economic  toilets, 
her  native  gayety  a  little  subdued  by  the  nov 
elty  of  the  situation.  The  groom  abated  some 
what  the  tremendous  energy  by  which  he  had 
been  distinguished.  The  cottage  had  a  pretty 
garden,  in  the  renovation  of  which  he  assisted 
with  his  own  hands,  setting  out  there,  also, 
many  plants  which  he  needed  in  his  own  labors. 
He  interested  himself  in  the  matter  of  taste 
fully  furnishing  the  house,  cultivated  for  his 
wife's  sake  some  acquaintance  with  the  neigh 
bors,  and  became  in  all  ways  more  like  ordinary 
human  beings. 

This  was  but  a  lull.  Scott  Braxton  was  gath 
ering  strength.  His  energy  broke  out  with  a 
greater  zest  than  before.  He  prepared  a  paint 
ing-room  of  a  peculiar  sort.  He  concocted  a 
prodigious  number  of  sap-greens  and  varnishes. 
He  refined  and  refined  again  upon  the  delicacy 
of  his  medium.  By  October  he  was  ready  to 
begin  a  picture,  which  was  to  herald  forth  his 
invention  to  the  world. 

The  painting-room  was  prepared  in  accord- 


BRAXTOWS  NEW  ART.  185 

ance  with  the  peculiar  conditions  of  the  case. 
It  was  fitted  with  a  very  perfect  heating  appa 
ratus,  and  made  as  air-tight  as  possible.  The 
painting  was  to  be  kept  while  in  progress  at 
a  uniform,  spring-like  temperature,  and  then, 
when  complete,  exposed  —  for  the  greater 
beauty  and  completeness  of  the  display  —  in 
the  presence  of  a  company  of  friends  and  crit 
ics,  to  the  influx  of  a  late  autumn  or  winter  at 
mosphere. 

Such  was  the  programme  for  a  first  ex 
perimental  canvas ;  the  later  ones,  of  course, 
would  be  allowed  to  develop  naturally.  He 
admitted  to  his  wife  that  his  process  was  not 
yet  perfect  at  all  points,  but  he  would  wait  no 
longer.  He  wished  to  launch  it  in  its  great 
main  features,  —  like  the  imperfect  phonograph, 
for  instance,  —  and,  while  enjoying  the  conse 
quent  fame  and  fortune,  to  complete  its  details 
at  leisure. 

The  most  excellent  of  heating  arrangements 
has  its  faults,  and  there  were  annoyances,  too, 
from  other  sources.  Strive  as  he  would,  the 
artist  was  driven  to  many  an  unsatisfactory 
makeshift,  and  forced  to  supplement  his  curi 
ous  new  colors,  here  and  there,  with  chemicals 
and  pigments  of  a  much  less  ethereal  sort. 
Pure  chromium,  for  instance,  gives  a  rich,  brill 
iant  green,  but,  under  certain  conditions,  is 


186  BRAXTON'S  NEW  ART. 

spontaneously  inflammable,  and  care  is  to  be 
taken  how  it  is  handled. 

As  the  work  progressed  he  began  to  with 
draw  his  confidences  from  his  wife.  A  time 
came  when  he  would  no  longer  even  admit  her 
to  his  painting-room. 

"  No,"  he  said,  playfully,  "  I  am  going  to 
have  my  surprise  for  you  also." 

None  but  himself  knew  the  drama  that  was 
taking  place  there,  the  intolerable  strain  upon 
every  fibre,  mental  and  physical,  the  desperate 
appeals  for  help,  the  agonizing  into  which  he 
entered  over  his  strange  project.  Sometimes 
he  was  relaxed  to  a  point  of  utter  feebleness, 
and  essayed,  almost  like  a  child,  to  coax  and 
wheedle  Providence  to  his  aim. 

"Ah,  dear  Heaven,"  he  cried,  well-nigh  be 
side  himself,  "  pray  let  it  be  !  You  canuot  let 
me  fail." 

It  was  all  becoming  vague  and  wild  to  the 
young  wife,  and  passing  beyond  her  ken.  Once 
she  asked  him,  nervously,  — 

"Are  you  really  sure,  dear,  that  we  shall 
succeed  ? " 

"  We  must  succeed,"  he  answered.  "  The 
money  is  measured  out  to  last  only  till  then. 
4  After  me,  the  deluge.'  " 

He  endeavored  to  turn  this  off  as  humor  the 
next  moment,  but  she  had  her  misgivings.  She 


BRAXTON'S  NEW  ART.  187 

wept  bitterly  at  the  new  and  tragic  aspect  of 
the  case.  She  saw  her  husband  grow  pale  and 
haggard  in  these  days.  She  implored  him  to 
pause,  to  take  but  the  most  ordinary  precau 
tions  for  his  health.  But  he  repulsed  her,  and 
cried  fiercely,  — 

"  I  would  mingle  the  best  drops  of  my  heart's 
blood  with  these  colors,  to  make  them  go." 

Finally,  however,  he  had  less  absorbed  man 
ners  ;  then  all  at  once  announced  :  "  It  is  over. 
It  is  done." 

On  the  tenth  of  December  the  village  of 
Mount  Pleasant  showed  an  unwonted  bustle. 
This  was  the  occasion  fixed  for  the  launching  of 
Scott  Braxton's  strange  invention.  Although 
it  had  long  been  spoken  of  as  about  to  occur, 
the  precise  date  was  only  determined  upon  the 
evening  before.  All  indications  then  went  to 
show  that  the  morrow  would  be  clear  and  cold, 
as  was  desirable. 

The  day  was  cold,  but  in  its  earlier  part 
cloudy.  The  hour  fixed  for  the  unveiling  of 
the  picture  was  two  o'clock.  Guests  were  in 
vited  for  a  luncheon  at  one.  A  considerable 
company  had  assembled.  A  number  of  the 
neighbors,  the  official  employees,  had  with 
drawn  their  valuable  services  from  government 
business  for  the  time  being,  to  be  present.  Con- 


188  BRAXTOWS  NEW  ART. 

gressman  Wheelright  and  his  family,  in  town 
for  the  new  session,  were  there.  The  boys  — 
or  most  of  them  —  supplied  a  gayer  element. 
They  took  a  sort  of  personal  pride  in  the  affair. 
They  had  known  "  old  man  "  Braxton  when  he 
was  pegging  away  at  his  invention  in  its  early 
stages,  and  considered  themselves  in  a  measure 
co-discoverers  with  him.  The  most  important 
thing,  however,  was  the  critics.  These  were  a 
professor  from  the  art  museum,  and  one  from 
the  Smithsonian  Institution,  and  the  art  critics 
of  the  morning  papers.  Greatest  of  all,  influ 
ence  had  been  made  to  bring  the  Washington 
correspondent  of  a  great  New  York  daily.  He 
could  flash  it  through  the  whole  of  the  Associated 
Press,  and  make  you  famous  in  an  instant 
from  Dan  to  Beersheba. 

When  luncheon  was  over,  the  guests  moved 
to  the  studio.  All  put  on  or  kept  on  their 
wraps,  for  the  doors  and  windows  were  to  be 
thrown  open  to  the  chilly  out-of-door  atmos 
phere.  The  critical  force  was  favorably  posted 
and  the  signal  given. 

The  requisite  openings  were  made  to  admit 
the  raw  December  air,  and  the  covering  with 
drawn  from  the  phenomenal  picture. 

A  buzz  went  around  the  room,  now  rapidly 
lowering  in  temperature.  A  cry  of  admiration 
broke  from  the  lips  of  the  young  wife.  Her 


BRAXTON' 8  NEW  ART.  189 

husband  sent  her  a  sharp  glance  of  reproval,  as 
if  this  were  not  in  the  best  of  taste. 

For  the  first  few  moments  nothing  peculiar 
happened.  The  sun  meantime  came  out,  and 
Scott  Braxton  accepted  it  as  a  happy  omen,  and 
beamed  accordingly. 

Surely  —  yes,  it  was  indeed  so  —  the  colors 
of  a  group  of  pale-green  trees  in  the  lower  left- 
hand  corner  of  the  painting  began  to  shimmer 
and  deepen  strangely.  The  reflection  of  these 
in  a  pool  of  water  followed.  The  movement 
communicated  itself  to  the  general  mass  of  foli 
age.  It  had  been  but  now  April  —  it  became 
midsummer. 

The  audience  held  its  breath  in  a  kind  of 
awe.  The  heart  of  Scott  Braxton  was  nigh 
bursting  with  suppressed  rapture. 

Red  and  yellowish  appearances  ensued.  Au 
tumn  hues  of  varying  strengths  slid  and  shifted 
over  the  face  of  the  work,  the  scarlet  of  maple, 
the  crimson  of  oak  and  sumach,  the  pale  and 
deeper  gold  of  birch  and  chestnut.  But  the 
clouds,  too,  the  parts  that  should  have  remained 
fixed,  began  to  act  strangely,  gave  highly  unex 
pected  effects.  Soon  everything  in  the  picture 
moved  in  a  universal  wavering  and  flicker. 
One  would  have  said  that  it  was  burning  up. 

It  was  burnino-. 

& 

The  picture  was  going  off  by  spontaneous  com 
bustion. 


190  BRAXTON'S  NEW  ART. 

Its  maker  rushed  wildly  out-of-doors,  with  his 
hands  in  his  hair.  His  wife,  after  a  first  im 
pulse  of  solicitude  toward  the  poor  painting, 
which  was  now  all  aflame  and  hopelessly  doomed 
to  destruction,  followed  him.  She  kept  up  some 
how  with  his  strides,  hurried  as  they  were,  and 
finally  drew  his  arm  through  hers,  though  he  at 
first  repulsed  her.  They  walked  on  a  long  way 
in  silence.  They  walked  away  into  the  lone 
some  parts  of  the  village,  and  out  upon  the  open 
roads,  leaving  their  stupefied  or  mocking  guests 
behind  them.  She  induced  him  to  stop  at  an 
outlying  house  while  she  negotiated  for  a  hat 
for  him,  making  some  plausible  excuse  to  ac 
count  for  his  need  of  it.  She  began  to  let  fall 
some  soothing  monosyllables,  and  then  fuller 
words  of  comfort. 

"  You  must  go  away  for  a  while,"  she  said. 

"  Of  what  use  ?  "  he  returned,  moodily.  "  I 
have  no  further  ideas,  and  the  money  is  spent." 

"  Your  picture  was  lovely,  even  apart  from 
the  strange  contrivance,"  she  continued.  "  Did 
you  not  hear  me  cry  out  in  admiration  ?  " 

"  I  heard,  but  thought  you  fancied  that  the 
change  had  commenced,  and  was  annoyed  that 
you  should  be  premature." 

"  I  could  not  help  it.  It  was  a  fine  and  beau 
tiful  picture,  if  I  have  ever  seen  one  in  my  life. 
My  heart  ached  to  see  it  destroyed.  You  do 
not  know  how  good  it  was  ?  " 


BRAXTON'S  NEW  ART.  191 

"  I  scarcely  thought  of  it,  I  was  so  intent 
upon  the  process." 

"  You  can  do  others  as  good  and  noble,  I  am 
sure.  Come !  that  is  our  future.  Let  us  dis 
miss  these  juggleries !  I  never  more  than  half 
liked  them,  though  I  was  afraid  to  tell  you  so. 
You  must  study  simpler,  more  legitimate  things, 
and  I  know  that  they  will  succeed.  And  I 
—  I  meantime  can  get  back  my  place  in  the 
Treasury." 

The  erratic  limner  bent  down  and  kissed 
her,  with  a  new  birth  of  affection  in  his  heart. 
And  she  had  never  felt  so  great  a  tenderness 
for  him  or  any  other  human  being  as  now  in 
his  failure  and  despondency. 

They  walked  on  as  the  day  waned,  and  did 
not  return  till  long  after  the  red  twilight  had 
ceased  to  burn  behind  the  wintry  copses. 

The  affair  naturally  made  a  great  stir  at 
Mount  Pleasant,  and  not  a  little  elsewhere. 
The  critics  of  the  local  papers  could  not  for 
bear  to  write  humorously  of  the  exceeding 
"warmth,"  and  the  like,  of  the  new  coloring; 
while  the  correspondent  of  the  great  New  York 
daily  gave  the  history  at  length  in  his  dis 
patches  as  that  of  a  freakish  inventor  with  an 
unusually  absurd  bee  in  his  bonnet. 

Nevertheless,  others  too,  besides  the  young 
wife,  had  noted  the  unusual  excellence  of  the 
picture  in  itself.  The  intense  preoccupation 


192  BRAXTOWS  NEW  ART.  * 

under  which  it  was  made  had  resulted  in  a 
naivet^  and  unconsciousness  of  resource,  a  di 
rectness  and  power,  and  an  original  charm  of 
effect  which  could  not  be  denied.  Its  author 
seemed  a  born  artist,  and  had  struck,  in  true 
landscape,  his  proper  field. 

He  was  threatened  with  a  violent  brain  fever, 
but  this  was  waved  back  by  the  sympathetic 
hand  of  the  sweet  ex-Treasury  girl,  who  never 
for  a  moment  relaxed  her  vigilance  over  him. 
He  passed  through  his  metamorphosis,  and  en 
tered  upon  a  new  period  of  existence,  devoting 
himself  to  the  simple  forms  and  hues  of  nature 
as  ardently  as  he  had  once  tried  to  divine  her 
chemic  mysteries. 

He  is  to-day  younger  and  gayer,  and  his  pic 
tures  sell  for  prices  that  place  them  beyond  the 
reach  of  all  without  Croesus-like  bank  accounts. 

And,  as  everything  comes  to  him  that  already 
hath,  it  seems  probable  that  a  rich  bachelor  un 
cle,  who  has  taken  a  fancy  to  his  wife,  will  also 
make  him  his  sole  legatee. 

"  I  was  well-nigh  beside  myself  with  loneli 
ness,  disappointment,  and  brooding  over  un 
healthy  problems,"  says  Braxton  to  this  amia 
ble,  charming  helpmeet.  "  You  brought  me 
back  to  a  simple,  natural,  human  existence. 
You  are  the  essence  of  chlorophyl,  the  result 
of  all  my  labors.  You  are  my  new  art,  my 
strange,  almost  incredible  discovery." 


ONE  OF   THE  THIRTY  PIECES. 


I. 

GRTJYERE'S  PLACE. 

IN  the  spring  of  the  year  1870,  gold  had 
fallen  so  low  that  it  began  to  be  thought  that 
specie  payments  —  suspended  entirely  during 
the  long  dreary  decade  of  the  epoch  of  the 
war  of  secession  —  would  be  resumed  at  once. 
Silver  in  considerable  quantity  actually  came 
into  circulation.  The  restaurants,  cigar  stands, 
and  other  establishments  for  the  sale  of  the 
lighter  articles  of  merchandise,  gave  it  out  in 
change,  by  way  of  making  an  extra  inducement 
to  customers. 

On  one  of  these  days  Henry  Barwood,  a 
Washington  Treasury  clerk,  and  McNab,  the 
rather  well-known  picture  restorer,  met  by  ac 
cident  at  the  door  of  Gruyere's  restaurant. 
Gruyere's  place,  although  in  the  business  quar 
ter,  is  not  supported  to  any  great  extent  by 
the  hurrying  throng  of  bankers',  brokers',  mer- 

13 


194  ONE  OF  THE  THIRTY  PIECES. 

chants',  and  lawyers'  clerks  who  overrun  the 
vicinity  every  day  at  lunch-time.  It  is  a  rather 
leisurely  resort,  frequented  by  well-to-do  im 
porters,  together  with  musicians,  and  artists, 
people  who  have  traveled,  and  whose  affairs 
admit  of  considerable  deliberation  and  repose. 
Barwood  in  former  times  had  been  in  the  habit 
of  going  there  occasionally  to  air  his  amateur 
French,  burn  a  teaspoonful  of  brandy  in  his 
coffee,  and  take  a  cheap  foretaste  of  Paris. 

Returned  just  now  to  New  York  to  spend  a 
vacation  at  his  home,  after  a  considerable  ab 
sence,  he  was  renewing  this  with  other  old  as 
sociations. 

McNab  was  sprung  from  the  race  which  has 
given  the  world  a  large  share  of  its  versatility  of 
talent  and  taste  for  adventure,  and  was  famil 
iarly  known  at  Gruyere's  as  "Mac."  He  was  of 
middle  age,  rheumatic,  and  in  receipt  of  an  in 
come  barely  sufficient,  with  ingenuities  of  man 
agement,  to  provide  for  his  diversified  needs. 

He  found  leisure  to  come  hither  every  day  to 
retail  the  gossip  of  the  studios,  and  fortify  him 
self  for  his  desultory  labors  with  the  artful 
stimulants  adapted  to  that  end.  He  liked  the 
society  of  young  men  for  several  reasons.  For 
one  thing,  they  were  more  free  with  their 
purses  than  his  older  cronies.  The  associa 
tion,  he  also  thought,  threw  a  sort  of  glamour 


ONE  OF  THE   THIRTY  PIECES.  195 

of  youth  about  his  own  person.  Finally,  they 
listened  to  the  disquisitions  and  artistic  rhap 
sodies  in  which  he  was  fond  of  indulging,  with 
an  attention  by  no  means  accorded  them  by  his 
equals. 

Barwood  was  of  a  speculative  turn  of  mind, 
with  a  strong  leaning  towards  whatever  was 
curious  and  out  of  the  common.  These  pro 
clivities  in  him,  the  conversation  and  pursuits 
of  McNab,  together  with  his  possession  of  a 
rambling  studio  or  store-room  full  of  trumpery, 
were  calculated  to  gratify.  A  moderate  sort  of 
friendship  upon  this  basis  had  sprung  up  be 
tween  the  two  men. 

They  made  mutual  protestations  of  pleasure 
at  this  casual  meeting.  Barwood  considered  it 
an  occasion  worthy  of  a  bottle  of  Dry  Verze- 
nay,  a  suggestion  which  was  not  in  the  least 
displeasing  to  McNab. 

The  payment  of  specie  was  so  entirely  a  nov 
elty  that  —  after  the  inquiries  and  explanations 
natural  to  so  long  a  separation  were  concluded 
—  it  was  among  the  earliest  of  the  topics  they 
touched  upon. 

"  Sure,  it 's  the  first  hard  money  I  've  seen 
these  ten  years,  so  it  is,"  said  McNab. 

"  That  is  my  case  also,"  said  Barwood.  "  I 
took  as  little  interest  in  the  matter  at  the  time 
as  a  boy  of  fourteen  might  be  supposed  to  ;  but 


196  ONE  OF  THE  THIRTY  PIECES. 

I  remember  very  well  how  rapidly  specie  dis 
appeared  at  the  beginning  of  the  war." 

"  And  where  has  it  been  ? "  asked  McNab, 
speculatively.  "  There  's  many  fine  points  of 
interest  about  it,  do  you  see  ?  Consider  the 
receptacles  in  which  it  has  been  hoarded  —  the 
secret  places  in  chimneys,  under  floors  and  un 
der  ground,  the  vaults,  old  stockings,  cabinets, 
and  caskets  that  have  teemed  and  glittered 
with  it.  Then  the  characters,  again,  of  all  its 
various  owners :  the  timid  doubters  about  the 
government,  the  speculators,  the  curiosity  hun 
ters,  the  misers  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Barwood,  coinciding,  "  the  his 
tory  of  a  single  one  of  these  pieces  would  no 
doubt  make  a  story  full  of  interest." 

It  did  not  detract  from  the  value  of  McNab's 
conversation,  in  his  view,  that  the  worthy  pic 
ture  restorer  pronounced  "  foine,"  "  hoorded," 
and  the  like,  instead  of  in  the  more  conven 
tional  way. 

"  But  what  I  'm  after  telling  you  is  n't  the 
singular  part  of  it  at  all,"  resumed  McNab, 
taking  in  a  casual  way  some  silver  from  his 
pocket  and  settling  down  to  the  subject. 
"  What  is  ten  years  to  it  ?  According  to  the 
mint  reports  a  coin  of  the  precious  metals  loses 
by  wear  and  tear  but  one  twenty -four  hun 
dredth  of  its  bulk  a  year.  These  pieces  I  hold 


ONE  OF  THE  THIRTY  PIECES.  197 

in  me  hand,  coined  forty  years  ago,  are  as  yet 
scarcely  defaced." 

"  And  in  another  forty  they  may  not  be  no 
ticeably  more  so,"  said  Barwood. 

"  Thrue  for  you,"  responded  McNab,  and  he 
continued  :  — 

"  What,  for  instance,  has  been  the  career  of 
this  Mexican  dollar?  Perhaps  it  was  made 
from  bullion  fresh  from  a  Mexican  mine.  In 
that  case  there  would  be  little  to  say.  But 
just  as  likely  as  not,  on  the  other  hand,  it  was 
struck  from  old  Spanish  plate,  or  former  coins, 
melted  down.  In  that  case  it  takes  us  back  to 
the  earliest  times,  and  its  origin  is  lost  in  ob 
scurity.  The  same  identical  metal  has  been 
time  after  time  re-melted,  re-cast,  re-stamped, 
and  thus  maintained  in  a  sort  of  perpetual 
youth.  This  gold  piece  upon  me  watch-chain, 
for  example,  was  perchance  coined  from  the 
sands  of  the  Pactolus,  and  once  bore  Chaldean 
characters." 

"  How  incongruous  with  such  romance  would 
seem  its  modern  uses,"  commented  his  auditor, 
reflectively. 

"  Right  you  are,"  the  other  went  on,  gather 
ing  yet  more  headway. 

'  Imperial  Caesar,  dead  and  turned  to  clay, 
Might  stop  a  hole  to  keep  the  wind  away.' 

And  so  the  pieces  counted  out  for  the  ransom  of 


198      ONE  OF  THE  THIRTY  PIECES. 

Richard  the  Lion-hearted,  an  Inca  of  Peru,  the 
material  of  the  spurs  of  Agincourt,  the  rings  of 
Cleopatra  and  Zenobia,  the  golden  targets  of 
Solomon,  the  ingots  of  the  ships  of  Tarshish, 
the  treasures  of  Ophir  and  of  Ormus  and  of 
Ind,  in  our  day  purchase  soap  and  candles  and 
mutton-chops  for  Brown,  Jones,  and  Robinson. 
And  yet,  why  not  ?  We  ourselves  have  come 
down  to  very  commonplace  uses ;  why  not  the 
works  of  our  hands  ?  You  with  your  conven 
tional  hat  and  English  walking-coat,  I  with  me 
spectacles  and  me  Irish  brogue,  have  had  an 
cestors  who  wore  coats  of  mail  in  the  first 
crusades,  twanged  the  bow  with  merry  Robin 
Hood  under  his  greenwood  tree,  sailed  in  the 
galleys  of  Hengist  and  Horsa,  and  traded  from 
Tyre  and  Sidon." 

"  You  think,  then,"  said  Barwood,  "  that 
some  part  of  the  coinage  of  antiquity  may  be 
yet  in  circulation  ?  " 

"  To  be  sure  it  is,  don't  I  tell  you  ?  I  say 
the  precious  metals  are  indestructible.  All  the 
coins  that  have  figured  prominently  in  history 
are,  in  some  shape  or  other,  still  extant.  Don't 
I  show  you  that  twenty-four  hundred  years 
would  be  needed  to  wear  out  a  coin  completely  ? 
But  how  long  will  it  last,  I  ask  you,  in  only 
moderate  use,  and  lying  buried  for  intervals  of 
hundreds  of  years  in  the  ground?  We  have 


ONE  OF  THE    THIRTY  PIECES.  199 

among  us  the  rings,  brooches,  chains,  bracelets, 
the  drinking- vessels,  and  vases  that  embody  the 
pomp  and  luxury  of  the  ages,  and  glitter  in  all 
the  chronicles  from  the  earliest  days." 

Taking  a  brief  pause  to  moisten  his  lips,  he 
resumed  :  — 

"  My  silver  dollar  here,  which  I  ring  upon 
Gruyere's  table,  and  with  which,  but  for  the 
persuadin'  way  you  have  wid  you,  I  should  have 
paid  for  me  frugal  repast,  has  haply  once  been 
moulded  in  Cellini's  dagger-hilts  or  crucifixes, 
or  has  formed  part  of  a  pirate's  booty  taken 
out  of  a  galleon  scuttled  on  the  Spanish  Main. 
For  aught  I  know,  again,  it  was  current  money 
in  Nineveh,  or  Babylon,  or  Tadmor  of  the  Wil 
derness.  Perhaps  it  was  one  of  the  pieces  paid 
by  Abraham  to  the  children  of  Heth  for  the 
double  cave  that  looked  towards  Mamre." 

"  Or  one  of  the  pieces  of  silver  paid  to  Judas 
for  his  betrayal  of  the  Master,"  said  Barwood, 
suddenly. 

McNab  looked  startled,  and  half  involun 
tarily  pushed  the  money  away  from  him,  ex 
claiming,  — 

"  That 's  the  divil's  own  notion  ye  have 
there." 

"  May  be  it  is ;  but  it  is  a  natural  enough 
sequence  from  what  preceded." 

Both  men  remained  silent  for  some  moments 


200  ONE   OF  THE  THIRTY  PIECES. 

upon  this,  and  contemplated,  abstractedly,  the 
small  bubbles  following  one  another  up  the 
long,  delicate  stems  of  their  wine-glasses. 

"Do  you  suppose,"  finally  asked  Barwood, 
in  a  meditative  way,  as  if  himself  impressed 
by  the  idea  he  had  so  fortuitously  struck  out, 
"  that  those  thirty  pieces,  if  really  extant, 
Would  carry  with  them  an  enduring  curse  ?  " 

"  There 's  no  good  in  them,  you  may  de 
pend,"  rejoined  the  other. 

By  this  time  the  bottle  and  the  plates  of  both 
were  empty. 

The  train  of  thought  they  had  been  pursuing 
seemed  to  have  found  its  climax  in  the  turn 
given  it  by  Barwood.  Over  their  coffee  and 
dessert  they  turned  to  more  cheerful  topics. 

"  Come  around  to  my  place  before  you  leave 
town,"  urged  McNab,  on  parting.  "  Ye  '11  en 
joy  some  new  rubbish  I  have  there  to  show 

ye." 

As  he  hobbled  away  he  muttered  to  himself 
again,  — 

"  It 's  the  divil's  own  notion,  so  it  is." 


ONE  OF  THE  THIRTY  PIECES.  201 

II. 

THE  BUREAU  OF   ETHEREAL   CLAIMS. 

THE  Bureau  of  Ethereal  Claims  at  Washing 
ton  was  run  by  a  force  of  clerks  of  moderate 
size,  under  control  of  that  veteran  soldier  and 
office-holder,  General  Hedge.  The  general  had 
been  a  little  of  everything,  in  the  matter  of  oc 
cupation,  in  his  time.  At  the  outbreak  of  the 
war  he  had  abandoned  the  agency  of  a  large 
life  insurance  company,  set  himself  to  canvass 
ing  for  troops  instead,  and  was  made  a  lieuten 
ant  over  them.  He  had  displayed  not  a  little 
courage,  but  more  yet  of  an  artful  strategic  tal 
ent,  had  come  out  a  brevet-brigadier,  and  had 
ever  since  been  making  a  good  thing  of  it  in 
the  official  service  of  the  government. 

The  office  bristled  also  with  other  military 
titles.  Everybody  in  it,  except  Bar  wood  and 
one  Judge  Montane,  seemed  to  be  either  colonel, 
major,  or  captain.  As  to  the  judge,  a  hard- 
worked,  uncommunicative  man,  who  was  said 
to  have  a  large  family  to  support  out  of  his 
moderate  pay,  he  himself  confessed,  one  day, 
over  a  dozen  of  beer  ordered  in  during  a  tem 
porary  absence  of  the  chief,  that  his  civic  title 
was  not  strictly  valid. 

"  What  were  you  judge  of,  Montane  ?  "  the 


202  ONE  OF  THE   THIRTY  PIECES. 

lively  young  Mars  Brown  —  who,  by  the  way, 
had  no  title  either  —  asked  him. 

"  I  '11  tell  you,  boys,"  he  replied,  leaving  his 
desk  for  the  first  time  on  record,  and  by  de 
grees  yielding  to  the  genial  influences  of  the 
occasion,  "  I  'm  just  no  judge  at  all,  do  you  see, 
except  may  be  as  I  'd  be  a  good  judge  of  whis 
key,  or  the  like." 

Mars  Brown  was  the  son  of  the  senator  of 
that  name,  a  man  whose  influence  few  generals 
or  bureaus  of  claims  could  afford  to  disregard. 
When  brought  to  the  office  by  his  father,  he 
was  given  a  place  there,  and  presently  became 
its  most  privileged  character.  He  chatted  fa 
miliarly  with  the  general,  absented  himself  for 
several  days  at  a  time  with  calm  unconcern, 
came  late  in  the  morning,  and  went  early,  as  he 
explained,  to  make  up  for  it.  He  was  a  hand 
some  fellow,  thoroughly  companionable,  and  on 
the  best  of  terms  with  himself.  He  displayed 
a  prodigious  acquaintance  with  horses,  dogs, 
guns,  boats,  and  fishing  tackle,  and  was  turned 
to  as  authority  on  all  matters  of  that  sort.  His 
stock  of  stories  was  large,  his  wit  always  ready, 
and  his  posturings  comical.  He  could  con 
vulse  a  social  company,  when  all  other  re 
sources  failed,  by  no  more  than  making  ridic 
ulous  faces. 

Among  women,   great  and  small,  he  was  a 


ONE  OF  THE  THIRTY  PIECES.  203 

conquering  hero,  and  the  times  were  rare  when 
he  was  not  in  demand  for  some  social  observ 
ance. 

Such  was  Mars  Brown,  at  the  age  of,  say, 
twenty-five.  He  was  a  confrere  of  Henry  Bar- 
wood  in  the  government  office,  but  between 
two  persons  of  such  highly  dissimilar  character 
there  could  be  no  great  intimacy.  It  so  hap 
pened,  nevertheless,  that  shortly  after  his  return 
to  Washington  from  the  vacation  described, 
Bar  wood  began  to  regard  him  with  distrust 
and  dislike,  as  a  possible  rival  in  a  quarter 
where  his  affections  were  very  clearly  centred. 

It  might  have  been  expected,  from  a  great 
preoccupation  with  lobbyists  and  politicians  to 
which  the  general  gave  himself,  that  the  busi 
ness  of  the  bureau  should  sometimes  languish, 
and  so  in  fact  it  did.  The  heat  and  burden  of 
it  were  borne  by  a  few  clerks,  whose  tenure  of 
office  depended  rather  upon  their  own  efficient 
work  than  influential  backing.  The  govern 
ment  duties  must  be  performed  by  somebody, 
and  it  so  happens,  in  spite  of  the  great  princi 
ple  of  rotation  in  office,  that  the  heads  of  many 
men  of  undeniable  usefulness  rest  firmly  upon 
their  shoulders,  while  hundreds  of  others  topple 
all  about  them. 

The  Bureau  of  Ethereal  Claims  was  not  with 
out  its  spasmodic  attempts  at  discipline.     The 


204  ONE   OF  THE  THIRTY  PIECES. 

general  spent  an  occasional  forenoon  there, 
lying  in  wait  for  delinquents,  whose  shortcom 
ings,  when  found,  he  made  the  text  for  a  very 
forcible  line  of  remarks.  The  business  of  the 
office,  he  would  state,  should  be  attended  to,  or 
he  would  make  a  future  theological  arrange 
ment  for  himself  of  a  very  unpleasant  sort,  if 
he  did  n't  know  the  reason  why.  With  Mars 
Brown,  however,  he  hardly  went  much  farther 
than  to  request  now  and  then,  as  a  personal 
favor,  that  that  young  man  should  try  to  be 
on  hand  henceforth  a  little  earlier  and  rather 
oftener.  To  this  young  Brown  was  always 
ready  to  assent  with  the  greatest  cordiality. 

A  new  punctuality  of  attendance  in  office 
hours  followed,  for  a  few  days,  these  eccentric 
efforts  at  reform,  whereupon  things  resumed 
their  usual  course. 

In  the  list  of  employees,  Henry  Barwood  was 
neither  one  of  the  best  nor  the  worst.  What 
ever  might  have  been  the  effect  of  the  life,  as 
described,  upon  the  others  or  the  general  pub 
lic,  it  was  certainly  harmful  to  his  own  private 
interests  and  character.  Naturally  of  an  im 
practical  and  somewhat  morbid  disposition,  he 
needed  the  stimulus  of  pursuits  —  perhaps  best 
a  business  career  —  in  which  the  necessity  for 
action  and  the  value  of  the  results  of  action, 
when  accomplished,  should  be  constantly  ap- 


ONE  OF  THE  THIRTY  PIECES.  205 

parent.  Had  he  been  engaged  in  ventures,  tak 
ing  risks  and  devising  plans,  either  upon  his 
own  or  any  approved  responsibility,  he  might 
have  abandoned  fancies, 'to  which  he  was  too 
much  given,  and  become  a  person  of  much  use 
and  value  in  the  world.  As  it  was,  he  found 
the  amplest  opportunity  for  their  indulgence. 

Every  day,  from  the  hours  of  nine  to  three, 
he  was  set  to  assort,  copy,  or  make  abstracts 
of  letters,  applications,  reports,  the  objects  of 
which  were  remote,  the  expediency  doubtful, 
and  the  ultimate  fate  highly  problematical. 
Without  interest  in  the  work,  or  particular 
pressure  for  its  performance,  he  moped  over  it, 
and  often  awoke  from  his  reveries  to  find  his 
tables  of  figures  a  muddle,  even  his  written 
phrases  incoherent. 

The  morbid  are  possibly  as  unintelligible  to 
themselves  as  to  others.  The  world,  viewed 
by  each  through  the  medium  of  his  own  dis 
torted  temperament,  is  seen  in  strangely  tinted 
lights,  which  are  more  than  suspected  to  be 
delusive,  yet  cannot  be  dissipated.  Barwood's 
vision  was  surely  affected  by  such  a  disturbing 
influence.  He  extracted  subtle,  unreal  mean 
ings  from  ordinary  things  or  circumstances,  the 
manner  of  a  nod,  the  tone  of  a  remark,  and 
having  found  them,  would  brood  over  them  for 
hours.  He  questioned  alike  his  own  motives 


206      ONE  OF  THE  THIRTY  PIECES. 

and  those  of  all  the  world  with  a  painful  scru 
tiny. 

What  a  dim  and  mysterious  problem  is  not 
the  mind  of  every  human  being  to  every  other ! 
With  what  is  it  filled,  at  the  time  when  it 
makes  slight  outward  sign,  and  is  left  to  its 
own  devices  ?  There  survives  —  in  notes  in 
Barwood's  own  handwriting  —  testimony  to  the 
effect  that  there  marched  through  his  brain 
a  procession  of  vivid,  rapidly  changing  fancies 
and  impressions  for  the  most  part  inclining  to 
melancholy.  There  were  certain  aspirations 
for  fame,  or  prominence,  distrust  of  his  own 
powers,  forecasting  of  probabilities,  repining 
for  past  sins  and  follies,  epigrams  for  meetings 
with  the  brilliant,  rage  and  epithets  for  imagi 
nary  meetings  with  enemies.  Through  the  rest 
came  breaths  of  reminiscence  of  days  of  perfect 
peace,  in  a  high-porticoed  house,  of  a  grass- 
grown  road,  and  a  sandy  beach  in  a  village  of 
the  Connecticut  const,  his  childhood's  home. 
He  had  idealized  it  far  beyond  any  reality  that 
it  had  ever  had.  His  fancies  were  rich  and 
full,  often  to  the  verge  of  the  chaotic.  His 
will  was  strong  and  imperiously  set  upon  its 
instant  designs,  but,  from  the  point  of  view 
of  any  large  general  plan,  somewhat  weak  and 
vacillating. 

It  could  not  be  said  that  he  was  not  ambi- 


ONE  OF  THE   THIRTY  PIECES.  207 

tious.     He  would  have  desired  success,  not  for 
its    splendors   or   the   opportunity  of  vaunting 
himself  above  others,  but  to  secure  the  kindly 
recognition  of  the  world,  and  obviate  some  of 
its  jarring  harshness  and  discomforts.     But  no 
one  prevailing  impulse  had  ever  yet  enlisted  his 
full  powers.     He  saved  money,  with  a  general 
idea  of  investing  it  and  becoming  a  capitalist. 
He  gave  much  time  to  studies  of  various  sorts. 
He  had  learned  music  among  the  rest,  late  in 
life,  and  composed  music  of  his  own,  using  as 
his  inspiration  some  favorite  poem,  or  picture, 
or  character.    These  compositions  were  marked 
by  a  quality,  if  the  comparison   may  be  made 
between  things  so  dissimilar,  like  that  of  some 
quaint  Chinese  vase,  or  broken  bronze  figurine 
of  antiquity. 

His  family,  the  Barwoods,  strangely  enough, 
had  been  from  the  earliest  times  a  race  of 
shrewd  and  driving  New  England  store-keep 
ers,  the  very  antipodes,  it  would  seem,  of  all 
sentiment  and  dilettanteism.  How  had  such  a 
scion  sprung  from  such  a  stock  ?  Whence  came 
such  incongruities  in  nature  ? 

The  Holbrook  farm  was  the  one  locality,  and 
Nina  Holbrook  the  one  figure,  in  a  generally 
sombre  prospect  surrounding  Barwood,  which 
gleamed  in  sunshine.  They  also,  by  the  inter 
position  of  even  so  light  and  sportive  a  per- 


208  ONE   OF  THE  THIRTY  PIECES. 

son  as  Mars  Brown,  were  to  be  presently  over 
shadowed. 

III. 

THE   SEARCH. 

It  was  natural  enough,  with  Barwood's  habit 
of  retrospect  and  casting  about  for  the  rare 
and  curious,  that  the  subject  so  oddly  struck 
out  in  his  talk  with  the  picture  -  restorer  at 
Gruyere's  should  have  taken  a  certain  hold 
upon  his  imagination.  But  to  explain  a  mis 
chievous  rapidity  with  which  the  notion  grew, 
and  an  all-absorbing  influence  it  presently  came 
to  exert  upon  him,  would  be  far  more  difficult. 
The  effect  of  the  mind  upon  the  body  is  but 
too  commonly  remarked.  By  persistent  direc 
tion  of  thought  to  the  part,  one  may  either 
create  or  cure  a  pain  in  any  specific  spot  of  bis 
organism.  So,  too,  may  the  mind  affect  itself. 
By  intense  concentration  upon  any  single  sub 
ject,  it  may  arrive  at  suspending,  and  finally 
destroying,  its  capacity  for  interest  in  any  or 
all  others. 

The  idea  that  the  hard  coin  which  figured  as 
the  price  of  the  treason  of  Judas  may  be  still 
extant  and  current,  in  such  every-day,  common 
place  times  as  ours,  seems  at  first  sight  utterly 
incongruous,  incredible,  perhaps,  even  a  little 


ONE  OF  THE  THIRTY  PIECES.      209 

sacrilegious.     Yet  the  fact  is  evidently  possi 
ble. 

"  The  precious  metals  are  practically  inde 
structible,"  soliloquized  Barwood,  going  again 
over  the  ground.  "  They  do  not  perish,  like 
baser  metals,  by  oxidation,  and  the  most  vio 
lent  excesses  of  the  elements  have  no  effect 
upon  them.  Where,  then,  are  the  treasures  of 
the  ages,  if  not  still  with  us  ?  " 

"  Are  they  buried  underground,  or  in  the 
ocean  ?  "  he  asks,  going  on  with  his  musings. 

"  From  the  nature  of  the  case  no  great  pro 
portion  can  have  been  thus  disposed  of.  This 
form  of  wealth  has  been  too  highly  esteemed, 
too  jealously  guarded,  and  searched  for,  for 
that.  In  all  the  wars  and  convulsions  of  so 
ciety,  though  it  has  changed  hands,  it  has  not 
been  destroyed.  Alexander  and  Tamerlane  and 
Timour  the  Tartar  and  Mahomet  may  overrun 
the  world,  burning  and  laying  waste,  melting 
its  more  ephemeral  forms  of  riches,  like  a  frost 
work  before  the  hot  blast  of  conquest,  but 
money  is  as  useful  to  the  victor  as  to  the  van 
quished.  Rome  received  the  heritage  of  Alex 
ander,  the  barbarians  that  of  Rome,  and  mod 
ern  civilization  that  of  the  barbarians." 

44  The  billows  of  time,"  said  Barwood,  dream 
ing  at  his  desk  in  the  Bureau  of  Claims,  "  roll, 
above  and  engulf  all  the  monuments  of  men, 
14 


210  ONE  OF  THE   THIRTY  PIECES. 

all  that  money  may  buy,  sell,  and  as  it  were 
create;  but  these  cunning  tokens  of  gold  and 
silver  glitter  and  toss  irrepressibly  in  the  very 
topmost  foam-crests  of  the  flood.  The  chief 
instrument  and  witnesses  of  the  pomp  and 
luxury,  wars,  treasons,  and  varied  mercenary 
crimes  of  history,  are  still  in  our  world  and 
of  it." 

"  Why  not,  then,  with  all  the  rest,"  he  runs 
on,  "  those  evil  pieces  of  money  cast  down  by 
Judas  before  the  chief  priests,  when  going  out, 
in  his  agony  of  remorse,  to  destroy  himself  for 
having  betrayed  the  Saviour  of  mankind  ?  " 

Such  were  the  reflections  that  occurred  to 
Barwood  with  a  strange  and  vivid  persistency, 
and,  favored  by  his  humoring  of  them,  finally 
possessed  him  with  a  resistless  fascination.  All 
coins  began  to  acquire  a  new  and  entertaining 
interest  in  his  eyes.  He  saw  in  each  a  possible 
exponent  of  countless  centuries  of  human  life 
and  passion.  It  is  true  that  in  such  a  country 
as  our  own  a  large  part  of  the  coinage  must  be 
rather  new  from  its  native  bed  in  the  mine. 
Yet  his  occasional  encounters  with  foreign 
pieces,  especially  those  of  Mexico  and  Canada, 
so  current  here,  and  consideration  of  the  im 
mense  sums  received  as  dues  at  the  great  ports 
of  customs,  in  his  regard,  leavened  the  entire 
mass  with  a  touch  of  romance. 


ONE  OF  THE  THIRTY  PIECES.  211 

"  Is  there  anywhere  to  be  found,"  he  asked 
himself,  "  any  account  of  the  career  of  the  thirty 
pieces  subsequent  to  their  appearance  in  the 
Scriptures  ?  " 

The  Capitol  library,  one  of  the  most  exten 
sive  collections  of  books  in  the  world,  offers  an 
ample  facility  for  research,  and  there  Barwood 
began  to  be  found  some  part  of  every  day,  for 
a  period  of  many  months. 

He  consulted,  in  his  singular  investigation, 
commentaries  of  every  sort  upon  the  Gospels ; 
lives  of  the  Apostles ;  collections  of  apocryphal 
gospels  and  scriptural  traditions ;  the  works  of 
the  early  fathers  ;  chronicles  of  the  Middle 
Ages ;  treatises  on  Oriental  life  and  customs  ; 
histories  of  symbolism  and  Christian  art  ;  and 
works  on  numismatics,  —  with,  finally,  accounts 
of  all  the  more  memorable  crimes  and  casual 
ties. 

For  so  possessed  was  he,  that  he,  after  a  time, 
framed  an  entirely  new  theory  of  history. 

He  looked  to  find  that  all  the  great  treasons, 
briberies,  betrayals  of  trust,  murders  for  mer 
cenary  advantage,  with  perhaps  also  great  finan 
cial  crises,  had  been  set  on  foot  by  this  fatal 
money,  now  become  an  instrument  of  the  divine 
wrath. 

44  They  have  mown  a  swath  through  history 
like  a  discharge  of  grape-shot,"  said  he. 


212  ONE  OF   THE  THIRTY  PIECES. 

He  believed  that,  if  the  truth  were  known, 
some  of  these  coins  would  be  found  in  the  bank 
accounts  of  the  dastardly  Byzantine  Emperor 
Manuel  Comnenus,  and  of  Egmont,  Benedict 
Arnold,  the  Hungarian  Gorgey,  and  many 
others  of  their  sort. 

His  progress  was  not  rapid.  Much  of  the 
literature  among  which  he  delved  was  musty 
with  age,  written  in  mediseval  Latin,  or  in  ob 
solete  characters,  and  gave  up  its  secrets  with 
reluctance.  A  collection  of  apocryphal  gospels 
"  printed  for  Richard  Royston,  at  the  Angel  in 
Amen  Corner,  MDCLXX,"  furnished  him  some 
particulars  about  Judas  which  by  no  means 
appear  in  the  Scriptures.  Judas  was,  when 
young,  for  instance,  it  said,  a  playmate  of  the 
boy  Jesus,  and  was  even  then  delivered  by  him 
from  a  devil  by  which  he  was  already  possessed. 
The  chief  value  of  this  book  was  in  its  reference 
to  another  and  fuller  Gospel  of  Judas  Iscariot, 
not  extant,  with  the  exception  of  some  passages 
quoted  from  it  in  the  writings  of  some  such 
early  father  as  Irenasus.  These  passages  proved, 
however,  to  be  upon  the  very  subject  of  his 
quest,  and  it  was  in  the  early  fathers  of  the  first 
half  of  the  second  century  that  Barwood  finally 
came  upon  a  definite  mention  of  his  coins. 

The  story  of  the  treason  followed  in  the  main 
that  of  the  authorized  version  of  Scripture. 


ONE  OF  TEE  THIRTY  PIECES.  213 

But  after  the  relinquisliment  of  the  coins  by 
Judas,  because  he  had  betrayed  innocent  blood, 
and  their  employment  in  the  purchase  of  the 
potter's  field,  occurred  a  supplementary  account 
translated  out  of  its  old  Latin  by  Barwood  as 
follows  :  — 

"  Now  these  shekels  were  of  the  coinage  of 
Simon,  the  high-priest ;  which  Antiochus  au 
thorized  him  to  issue.  They  bore  the  signs  of 
the  pot  of  manna  and  the  flowering  rod  of 
Aaron,  the  high-priest.  But  he  to  whom  they 
were  given  for  the  potter's  field  knew  that  they 
were  the  price  of  blood,  and  he  was  afraid. 
And  he  stamped  them  with  a  mark  like  unto  a 
cross,  that  they  might  be  known.  Neverthe 
less,  great  tribulation  came  upon  this  man,  and 
tribulation  came  likewise  upon  all  them  that 
bought  and  sold  with  the  money  of  Judas." 

Later  on,  Leontinus,  a  Byzantine  writer  of 
the  sixth  century,  in  a  treatise  on  the  efficacy  of 
certain  forms  in  imparting  a  virtue  to  inanimate 
matter,  instanced,  as  well  known,  the  malevo 
lence  inherent  in  the  thirty  silver  pieces  of  Ju 
das.  They  were  swift  to  carry  ruin  with  them 
wherever  they  went.  Thence  the  legend  was 
traced  onward.  In  the  Middle  Ages,  so  de 
lighting  in  all  that  was  romantic,  mysterious, 
and  portentous,  it  appeared  to  have  been  im 
plicitly  received.  Such  authorities  as  Eginhard, 


214  ONE  OF  THE  THIRTY  PIECES. 

abbot  of  Seligenstadt,  under  Charlemagne,  —  if 
we  cite  correctly,  —  William  of  Malmesbury, 
the  English  chronicler  of  the  twelfth  century, 
and  Roger  Bacon  of  the  thirteenth,  Malespini, 
the  Italian  of  the  same  date,  and  others  of 
equal  note,  mentioned,  as  fully  established,  that 
the  coins  of  Judas  were  in  circulation,  and  in 
flicted  serious  injury  upon  those  into  whose 
possession  they  came.  It  was  said  to  be  im 
possible  to  amalgamate  the  material  of  which 
they  were  made  with  any  other  silver.  Either 
it  would  not  melt  at  all,  or  in  melting  remained 
obstinately  distinct.  This  was,  however,  a 
mooted  point.  Some  alchemists,  on  the  other 
hand,  seemed  disposed  to  attribute  the  ill  suc 
cess  of  their  efforts  at  transmutation  to  the 
presence  of  some  baleful  taint  from  this  source 
in  the  silver  upon  which  they  were  conducting 
their  experiments. 

Matthew  Paris,  who  first  popularized  the  le 
gend  of  the  Wandering  Jew,  and  might  have 
been  supposed  to  treat  of  this  also,  on  the 
other  hand,  strangely  enough,  makes  no  men 
tion  of  it. 

The  conclusions  arrived  at  by  Barwood  were 
these :  — 

1.  There  was  for  hundreds  of  years  a  well- 
defined  belief  in  the  continued  existence  and 
active  circulation  of  the  thirty  pieces  of  Judas. 


ONE  OF  THE  THIRTY  PIECES.  215 

2.  They  were  supposed  to  be  utilized  as  an 
agency  of  the  divine  judgment,  to  be  a  potent 
factor  of  evil,  and  leave  ruin  in  their  track. 

3.  The  tradition  gradually  disappeared,  and 
is  not  traced  in  the  literature  of  modern  times. 

Here  was  a  useful  occupation  indeed  for  a 
young  American  Treasury  clerk.  It  would  have 
been  interesting  to  have  General  Hedge's  opin 
ion  upon  it,  for  instance.  But  that  functionary 
was  too  busy  with  confidential  transactions  with 
his  brother-in-law,  Richard  Roe,  a  claim  agent 
practicing  before  the  bureau,  and  wittf  schemes 
of  addition,  division,  and  silence  with  Congress 
man  Doublegame,  to  attend  to  matters  even 
more  worthy  of  his  attention  than  this. 

Barwood  did  not  stop  here.  Now  that  his 
belief  was  put  in  tangible  shape,  he  felt  im 
pelled  onward  towards  some  verification  of  it. 
He  examined  minutely  every  coin  collection  in 
Washington,  and,  as  he  could,  made  journeys 
also  to  see  those  in  several  of  the  greater  cities. 
Very  seldom  did  he  anywhere  find  a  specimen 
of  Jewish  money,  since  Jewish  coins  are  rare. 

"The  Jews,  as  he  noted  in  one  of  his  memo 
randum  books,  had  no  coinage  of  their  own  until 
the  time  of  Maccabeus.  Simon  Maccabeus,  by 
virtue  of  a  decree  of  Antiochus  (1  Mace.  xv.  6) 
issued  a  shekel  and  also  a  half-shekel.  These, 
with  the  exception  of  some  brass  coins  of  the 


216  ONE  OF  THE  THIRTY  PIECES. 

Herods,  Archelaus,  and  Agrippa,  and  a  doubt 
ful  piece  attributed  to  Bar  Cochba,  the  leader 
in  the  last  rising  against  the  Romans,  are  the 
only  coins  of  Judea  extant." 

He  now  began  to  be  affected  by  a  nervous 
dread  brought  on,  no  doubt,  by  his  too  close 
study  and  preoccupation  with  this  subject.  As 
he  alone  had  felt  this  strange  interest  and  pros 
ecuted  the  strange  inquiry,  might  it  not  be  that 
he  was  being  drawn  in  some  mysterious  way 
within  the  influence  of  the  fatal  money  ?  Per 
haps  he  himself  was  to  be  involved  in  its  re 
lentless  course.  He  imagined  at  times  that  he 
felt  a  peculiar  influence  at  the  touch  of  certain 
pieces,  and  shuddered  at  the  thought  that  it 
might  then  be  near.  He  held  this  to  be  a 
clairvoyant  sense,  that  they  had  perhaps  figured 
in  crimes  at  least.  Contact  with  hands  hot  with 
baleful  passion  had  no  doubt  imparted  to  them 
subtle  properties,  capable  of  being  detected  by 
a  sensitive  organization  like  his  own. 

In  such  unusual  study  and  speculation  Bar- 
wood  passed  the  spring  and  summer  of  1870. 
Towards  the  middle  of  August  occurred  the 
well-remembered  flurry  in  Wall  Street  conse 
quent  upon  the  breaking  out  of  the  Franco- 
Prussian  war.  Gold  jumped  up  to  one  hundred 
and  twenty-three.  Money  commanded  exorbi 
tant  rates,  and  the  whole  financial  system  was 


ONE  OF  THE  THIRTY  PIECES.  217 

disturbed.  It  was  no  more  a  question  now  of 
specie  payments.  Even  the  small  scattering  of 
silver  was  withdrawn  again  from  circulation, 
and  did  not  reappear  for  many  a  long  day. 

The  effect  of  these  events  upon  Bar  wood,  al 
though  not  immediate,  was  highly  important. 
With  the  disappearance  of  the  specie,  the  daily 
sight  and  handling  of  which  had  given  his  mor 
bid  conception  a  tangible  support,  its  strength 
began  to  decline.  It  was  not  forgotten,  but 
time  drew  it  away  from  him  little  by  little,  and 
threw  hues  of  distance  and  strangeness  over  it. 
At  length  he  looked  back  upon  it  with  a  half 
wonderment  himself,  and  a  new  interest  yet 
more  powerful  arose  to  take  its  place. 


IV. 

THE  HOLBKOOK  FARM. 

The  day  had  been  sultry.  Even  after  sunset 
the  atmosphere  in  the  city  was  oppressive,  and 
pavements  and  railings  were  warm  to  the  touch 
from  the  steady  blaze  to  which  they  had  been 
subjected.  At  the  Holbrook  farm,  however, 
occasional  puffs  of  air  stirred  the  silver  poplars 
skirting  the  road,  and  the  brown  timothy  grass 
growing  knee-deep  well  up  towards  the  veran 
da,  and  gave  a  more  refreshing  temperature. 


218  ONE  OF  THE   THIRTY  PIECES. 

Two  idle  negro  urchins,  Porto  Rico  and 
Carter's  boy,  turning  somersaults  in  the  grass, 
suddenly  relinquished  the  fascinating  sport  to 
rush  and  clamor  for  the  privilege  of  holding 
Barwood's  horse.  Porto  Rico's  longer  legs  and 
greater  force  gave  him  the  advantage.  He 
climbed  into  the  vacated  saddle  almost  before 
Barwood  was  well  out  of  it,  and  trotted  off  to 
the  stable,  Carter's  boy  whooping  and  bobbing 
his  woolly  head  in  pursuit. 

"  Never  you  mind,"  cried  Carter's  boy,  "  I  '11 
have  the  other  gen'l'm'n's." 

"  No  other  gen'l'm'n  ain't  comin',"  said  Porto 
Rico.  "  I  done  tole  you,  child,  dey  don't  bofe 
come  de  same  day." 

The  Holbrook  house,  three  miles  from  the 
Capitol,  of  the  white  dome  of  which  it  com 
mands  a  glimpse  across  an  expanse  of  green 
foliage,  was  a  residence  surviving  from  the 
days  of  the  slave-holders.  Like  other  such 
places  it  had  been  altered  and  improved  upon. 
It  seemed  to  have  been  originally  a  one-and-a- 
half-story  stone  dwelling,  to  which  a  later  pro 
prietor  had  added  a  high-peaked  roof,  dormer 
windows,  and  ample  piazzas.  It  stood  half-way 
up  a  pleasant  slope,  crowned  by  a  thick  grove. 
A  brook  ran  down  the  left  hand  of  the  en 
trance  road,  and  beyond  this  rose  a  steep  little 
bluff  covered  with  scrub-oaks  and  chestnuts. 


ONE   OF  THE  THIRTY  PIECES.  219 

The  attraction  that  drew  people  to  Holbrook 
farm  was  not  so  much  the  proprietor  himself, 
nor  an  elderly  maiden  sister,  his  housekeeper, 
nor  yet  Carter,  his  farmer  and  general  manager 
who  came  with  the  rest  from  Richmond.  It 
was  the  engaging  manners  and  amiable  beauty 
of  Nina  Holbrook,  the  daughter  of  the  house. 
The  old  gentleman  was  a  partial  paralytic, 
whimsical,  and  not  especially  sociable.  He  was 
known  to  have  lived  in  princely  style  at  Rich 
mond.  He  was  said  to  have  met  with  contin 
ual  reverses,  in  the  loss  of  property,  sickness, 
and  the  death  of  friends,  and  the  farm  had  been 
bought  with  the  last  remnants  of  a  great  fortune. 

Barwood  strode  to  the  piazza,  riding- whip  in 
hand.  A  young  lady  rose  from  her  reading. 

Blonde  beauty  is  oftentimes  slightly  indefi 
nite  ;  its  edges  are,  as  it  were,  too  much  softened 
off  into  the  background.  But  the  figure  before 
Barwood  was  blonde,  and  yet  fresh,  distinct, 
clear-cut,  —  pre-Raphaelitish,  to  take  a  word 
from  painting.  In  all  the  details,  from  the 
black  ribbon  binding  her  feathery  hair  to  the 
pretty  buttoned  boot,  there  was  about  her  the 
ineffable  aroma  of  a  pure,  delicate  taste. 

To  a  man  of  Barwood's  temperament  the 
matter  of  falling  in  love  was  not  too  facile. 
He  analyzed  the  tender  passion,. put  it  under  a 
lens,  asked  it  too  many  questions,  and  chilled 
and  repelled  it. 


220  ONE  OF  THE  THIRTY  PIECES. 

Nevertheless,  after  two  years  of  an  intimate 
association,  he  had  discerned  in  Nina  Holbrook 
a  frankness  and  loveliness  of  character  com 
mensurate  with  her  personal  graces,  and  had 
arrived  at  no  less  a  condition  than  falling  in 
love.  First,  he  believed  that  her  permanent 
influence  upon  his  character  could  cure  his 
moodiness  and  unpractical  tendencies,  and 
enable  him  to  exert  his  fullest  powers.  Sec 
ond,  by  making  the  supposition  that  anything 
was  to  limit  or  break  off  their  intercourse,  he 
found  it  had  become  indispensable  to  him. 

Their  acquaintance  had  begun  in  some  of  the 
ordinary  ways  in  which  such  young  people  meet. 
It  might  have  been  at  a  tea-party,  a  Secretary's 
reception,  or  an  excursion  by  boat  on  the  Poto 
mac.  They  discovered  that  they  had  mutual 
acquaintances.  His  evening  rides  began  to  be 
directed  through  the  pretty  lanes  that  led  to 
Holbrook.  She  loaned  him  a  book  ;  he  brought 
her  confectionery  ;  they  played  piano  duets  to 
gether. 

On  her  side  the  feeling,  from  the  beginning, 
was  very  different.  She  admired  Barwood  for 
fine  traits,  and  was  grateful  to  him  for  many 
kindnesses.  But  certain  peculiar  moods  of  his 
made  her  uncomfortable.  His  interest,  also, 
was  too  much  occupied  with  books,  speculations 
about  the  anomalies  and  problems  of  life,  and 


ONE  OF  THE  THIRTY  PIECES.  221 

similar  serious  matters.  She  found  it  sometimes 
wearisome  and  difficult  to  follow  him.  She  re 
spected  such  things,  of  course,  but  she  had  not 
as  much  head  for  them  as  he  gave  her  credit 
for.  Her  taste  was  of  a  more  practical,  com 
monplace,  and  cheerful  order.  She  was  well 
enough  satisfied  with  people  and  things  in  their 
ordinary  aspects. 

She  got  on  much  better  with  Mars  Brown, 
for  instance.  With  him  she  exchanged  gossip 
on  the  affairs  of  her  friends  and  his,  discussed 
the  last  party  or  the  next  wedding,  and  laughed 
gayly  at  his  drolleries.  She  confessed  her  own 
stupidity  and  frivolity  with  a  charming  frank 
ness,  making  no  secret  at  all  of  it. 

Barwood  was  conscious  that  he  did  not  al 
ways  interest  her,  though  she  had  never  shown 
him  anything  but  the  most  ladylike  attention. 
He  went  away  lamenting  bitterly  a  destiny 
that  had  fashioned  his  nature  in  so  small  and 
unconformablc  a  groove.  His  happiness  did  not 
consist  in  being  with  her,  for  then  he  was  too 
often  oppressed  by  his  uncomfortable  conscious 
ness.  It  was  rather  in  retrospect,  in  the  de 
licious  memory,  when  he  had  left  her,  of  her 
sweetly  roseate  face,  the  tones  of  her  voice,  the 
shine  of  her  hair.  He  gave  her  such  small 
gifts  as  he  might  within  the  bounds  of  pro 
priety.  It  would  have  consisted  with  his  no- 


222  ONE  OF  THE  THIRTY  PIECES. 

tion  of  the  fitness  of  things  to  have  given  her 
everything  and  left  himself  a  beggar. 

Barwood  rode  to  Holbrook  to-day  with  a  defi 
nite  purpose.  Mars  Brown,  the  "  other  gen'l- 
man  "  of  Carter's  boy,  was  devoting  more  atten 
tion  in  this  direction  of  late  than  the  exigencies 
of  his  boat  and  ball  clubs,  his  shooting  and 
fishing,  and  the  claims  of  the  social  world  in 
town  would  seem  to  warrant.  Barwood  did  not 
really  fear  him  as  a  rival ;  it  was  only  the  sug 
gestion  of  a  possibility.  There  might  at  any 
time,  too,  be  other  rivals.  He  had  determined 
to  forestall  the  danger,  and  tell  her  to-day  of 
his  affection. 

Yet  Mars  Brown  was  a  dangerous  rival, 
though  perhaps  himself  as  little  aware  of  it  as 
Barwood.  He  also  had  been  impressed,  upon 
some  casual  meeting,  by  the  animated  beauty 
of  Nina  Holbrook.  Accustomed  to  success,  he 
had  aimed  at  first  to  add  one  more  to  his  list  of 
flirtations  and  conquests.  The  result  had  by 
no  means  answered  to  his  expectations.  When 
he  approached  sentiment  Nina  laughed  at -him. 
By  degrees  he  had  been  piqued  into  serious 
ness,  and  for  the  first  time  in  his  life  approxi 
mated,  in  his  regard  for  her,  a  real  esteem  and 
attachment. 

Although  Nina  had  laughed  at  first,  she  came, 
later  on,  to  sometimes  blush  at  his  voice  or  step, 


ONE  OF   THE  THIPfTY  PIECES.  223 

or  the  touch  of  his  hand  ;  and  had  his  custom 
ary  shrewd  vision  not  been  disturbed  by  some 
unusual  influences  at  work  within  himself,  he 
might  have  seen  earlier  these  indications  of 
favor. 

He  had  the  audacity  that  charms  women,  a 
frank,  open  face,  a  hearty  laugh,  an  entirely 
healthy,  cheery  nature,  an  air  of  strength,  too, 
under  all  his  frivolity ;  and  there  was  little 
more  that  she  could  have  desired. 

Bar  wood  drew  closer  one  of  the  comfortable 
chairs  at  hand,  and  sat  down  by  Nina.  They 
began  to  talk  at  first  of  the  unusual  heat,  the 
news  of  the  day,  and  what  each  had  been  doing 
since  their  last  meeting. 

The  prospect  before  their  eyes  was  very  se 
cluded  and  peaceful.  Bar  wood  felt  a  soothing 
influence  from  it  pervade  his  troubled  spirit. 

"  I  am  improving  my  mind,  you  see,"  said 
Nina,  lightly,  holding  up  to  him  her  book,  one 
of  Motley's  histories.  "  Even  you  can  hardly 
find  fault  with  this." 

"  Am  I  in  the  habit  of  finding  fault  ?  "  he  re 
turned,  gently. 

"  Oh  no,  I  don't  mean  that,  but  you  know  so 
much  that  you  frighten  one." 

"  Thank  you." 

He  spoke  with  a  grave  smile,  but  was  bleed 
ing  inwardly. 


224  ONE  OF  THE  THIRTY  PIECES. 

"  Why  were  you  not  at  the  Hoyts'  ?  "  asked 
Nina,  changing  the  subject.  "  I  wish  you  had 
been,  if  only  to  see  Betty  Goodwin.  You  used 
to  know  her.  It  is  but  so  short  a  time  since 
she  was  a  little  girl,  and  now  she  is  out  of 
school  and  as  old  as  anybody.  You  should  have 
seen  the  attention  she  received,  and  her  perfect 
self-possession.  It  makes  one  feel  extremely 
antiquated.  Am  I  really  getting  very  much 
wrinkled?" 

She  posed  herself  before  him  in  a  sort  of 
quizzical  way  for  inspection.  Barwood  gazed 
with  such  an  admiration  at  her  face  as  almost 
to  forget  to  speak.  She  was  to  him  the  very 
personification  of  youthful  bloom  and  beauty. 
Any  notion  of  age  and  wrinkles  in  her  regard 
was  simply  inconceivable. 

"  Methuselah  was  n't  a  circumstance,"  he  an 
swered. 

She  dismissed  this  subject  in  its  turn  with  a 
little  pout. 

"  I  am  so  glad  you  have  come  early,"  she  re 
sumed,  "  I  wish  the  others  would  imitate  your 
example." 

"What  others?" 

"Mr.  Hudson,  the  Hoyt  boys,  Mr.  Brown, 
Fanny  Travers,  Alice  Robinson,  and  the  rest. 
You  did  not  suppose  you  were  to  do  them  alone, 
I  hope." 


ONE  OF  THE  THIRTY  PIECES.  225 

"  Do  what  alone  ?     I  don't  understand." 

"  The  tableaux,  —  Evangeline.  Did  you  not 
get  my  message  ?  " 

"  No,  I  have  had  no  message.  Am  I  to  be 
implicated  in  tableaux  ?  " 

"  Why,  certainly.  You  are  to  be  Evange- 
line's  father,  you  know.  They  are  for  the 
benefit  of  the  French  wounded.  I  sent  you  a 
note  this  morning,  and  this  is  our  meeting  to 
arrange  preliminaries." 

Barwood  saw  that  if  he  would  not  lose  the 
opportunity  and  postpone  his  purpose,  no  time 
was  to  be  lost.  The  other  visitors  might  arrive 
at  any  moment. 

Rarely,  perhaps,  is  the  marriage  proposal  any 
thing  less  than  embarrassing,  and  Barwood  was 
too  self-conscious  to  be  greatly  transported  out 
of  himself,  even  when  most  ardent. 

"  I  have  something  of  the  greatest  moment 
to  say  to  you,"  he  commenced.  "I  hardly  know 
how  to  begin." 

"  Only  those  things  are  well  said  which  it 
is  difficult  to  say,"  she  returned,  sending  him 
back  gayly  a  French  mot,  without  suspicion  of 
what  was  coming. 

She  looked  before  her  at  the  glowing  even 
ing  sky,  and  so  did  Barwood.  The  crickets 
and  katydids  had  struck  up  their  chirruping 
notes  and  the  tree-toads  their  long  monotonous 

15 


226  ONE   OF   THE   THIRTY  PIECES. 

rhythm,  while  there  came  from  the  woods  at  in 
tervals  the  sweet,  sad  note  of  the  whippoorwill. 
Fire-flies  began  to  twinkle  in  the  uncertain  light. 

"  We  have  sometimes  laughed  together,  you 
and  I,  at  sentiment,"  he  continued,  "voted  it 
an  invention  of  the  story-books ;  but  there  are 
times  —  there  is  a  sentiment  —  which  —  in 
short,  dear  Nina,  I  have  come  to  ask  you  to  be 
my  wife.  I  love  you  very  dearly." 

44  Oh,  Mr.  Barwood,"  said  Nina,  looking 
hastily  towards  him,  with  heightened  color  and 
a  tone  of  regret,  "  you  must  not  say  so.  I  can 
not  let  you  go  on." 

"  I  must  go  on,"  said  he.  "  I  have  never 
felt  so  strongly  upon  any  subject  as  this.  I 
know  I  am  not  worthy  of  such  happiness,  yet 
I  cannot  bear  the  thought  of  losing  you.  Con 
sider  our  long  friendship.  You  will  be  mine  ? 
Oh,  say  so,  Nina  !  " 

In  a  panic  of  dread  lest  his  petition  was  al 
ready  refused,  he  became  almost  incoherent. 

Nina  was  a  tender-hearted  young  lady,  and 
by  this  time  in  tears.  His  evident  distress,  and 
her  appreciation  of  the  great  compliment  he 
paid  her,  would  have  commanded  from  her  al 
most  any  return  save  the  one  he  asked.  But 
the  sacrifice  was  too  great.  She  had  not 
thought  it  would  ever  be  necessary  to  change 
their  relation  of  friendship. 


ONE   OF  THE    THIRTY  PIECES.  227 

"  I  am  very  sorry  to  have  to  say  what  is 
painful  to  you,"  said  she,  with  a  sob  only  half 
repressed.  "  I  want  you  to  be  always  my 
friend.  I  shall  be  very  unhappy  on  account  of 
this,  but  I  cannot  —  you  will  find  some  other 
—  you"  — 

"  Do  not  speak  further,"  he  interrupted,  im 
petuously.  "  You  have  not  yet  said  the  fatal 
word.  Reserve  it.  Take  time  and  consider. 
Let  me  still  hope  !  " 

"  No,"  she  began,  «  I  ought  not  "  —  but 
wheels  and  merry  voices  were  heard  close  at 
hand.  "  Oh  !  they  must  not  see  me  like  this," 
she  broke  off,  and  hurried  away  for  a  brief 
space  to  cover  her  agitation. 

In  a  moment  more,  the  Robinsons'  carriage 
was  at  the  steps.  When  Nina  came  down,  with 
a  sweet,  restored  composure,  there  was  a  jolly 
party  of  ten  or  twelve  in  the  drawing-room. 
Mars  Brown  was  already  amusing  the  rest  with 
his  absurd  posturings. 

"  I  shall  be  Evangeline,"  said  he,  wrapping 
a  lady's  shawl  about  him  and  sitting  on  an  arm 
of  the  sofa  in  a  collapsed  attitude.  "  No,  I  '11 
be  Basil  the  blacksmith."  He  made  a  pretense 
of  delivering  tremendous  muscular  strokes,  on 
an  imaginary  anvil,  with  a  tack-hammer  that 
happened  in  his  way. 

Everybody  had  his  or  her  own  notions  of  the 


228  ONE  OF   THE   THIRTY  PIECES. 

appropriate  and  picturesque.  A  vast  deal  of 
talking  was  required  in  arranging  the  various 
scenes. 

"  Evangeline  should  manifest  a  '  celestial 
brightness.'  I  don't  think  you  do  it  quite 
right,"  said  Alice  Robinson  to  the  candidate 
for  that  place.  "  You  should  smile  a  little." 

"  Oh  no,  not  at  all ;  she  should  have  an  ear 
nest,  far-off  look,"  said  another. 

"  Of  course  she  should,"  contributed  Mars 
Brown,  "  something  in  this  way." 

And  he  rumpled  his  hair  and  contorted  his 
features  into  an  expression  of  idiotic  vacancy. 

"  If  we  only  had  a  real  artist  to  arrange 
them  !  "  sighed  Nina.  "  What  would  I  not  give 
for  my  old  McNab,  who  was  so  good  at  such 
things  !  " 

44  You  know  McNab,  too  ?  "  exclaimed  Bar- 
wood  in  surprise.  "  Could  it  by  any  chance  be 
the  picture-restorer  ?  " 

"  He  was  my  drawing-teacher  at  Richmond 
for  years,"  she  replied. 

"  What  a  small  world,  to  be  sure !  "  said  Bar- 
wood,  giving  vent  once  more  to  a  favorite  re 
flection  of  his.  The  mention  of  McNab  brought 
back  for  a  brief  moment  the  remembrance  of 
their  last  meeting,  its  subjects  of  conversation, 
and  the  strange  pursuit  into  which  it  had  led 
him. 


ONE  OF  THE  THIRTY  PIECES.  229 

The  signing  of  the  marriage  contract  was 
selected,  among  others,  by.  the  amateurs  as  a 
fitting  subject  for  illustration. 

"  We  must  have  a  table,"  said  Miss  Travers. 
"  At  one  side  sits  the  notary,  lifting  his  pen 
from  the  document  to  which  he  has  just  affixed 
his  name.  At  the  other  her  father  pushes  to 
wards  the  notary  a  roll  of  money  in  payment." 

"  Here  you  are,"  said  one  George  Hudson, 
taking  his  place  and  assuming  the  appropriate 
attitude  ;  "  here  's  your  notary  ;  bring  on  your 
old  gentleman  and  his  money." 

"  A  roll  of  copper  cents  would  be  just  the 
thing,"  said  Miss  Travers.  "  They  look  an 
tique  enough." 

"  Will  some  gentleman  deposit  with  the 
treasurer  a  roll  of  antique  copper  cents,"  said 
Brown,  passing  a  hat.  "  No  gentleman  de 
posits  a  roll  of  copper  cents.  Very  well,  then 
the  wedding  can't  go  on." 

"  Do  you  think  I  '11  sign  marriage  contracts 
for  copper  ?  "  said  Hudson.,  "  No  indeed ;  I  'm 
not  that  kind  of  a  notary." 

"  I  will  bring  down  some  of  papa's  coins, 
then,"  said  Nina.  "  He  is  very  particular,  but 
I  don't  believe  he  will  mind  just  for  once." 

She  returned  in  a  moment  with  a  dozen  or 
more,  from  a  collector's  cabinet,  most  of  them 
silver  pieces,  and  placed  them  on  the  table. 


230  ONE   OF  THE  THIRTY  PIECES. 

Barwood,  standing  by,  took  them  up  and  began 
to  examine  them  listlessly. 

"  I  did  not  know  your  father  was  a  numis 
matist,"  said  he. 

"  He  once  had  a  great  taste  in  that  way," 
said  Nina,  "  but  his  collection  now  is  broken 
up  ;  when  we  left  Richmond  most  of  it  was 
sold  off,  and  he  retained  only  a  few  of  the 
choicest  pieces,  which  he  keeps  with  much  care 
in  his  room.  I  don't  know  much  about  such 
things.  This  is  considered  among  the  most 
peculiar,  I  believe."  She  selected  one  from 
among  the  rest,  in  a  friendly,  explanatory  way. 
"  It  was  taken  out  of  a  wreck  on  the  California 
coast.  It  was  the  last  that  papa  bought  before 
his  failure.  I  think  it  is  Russian  —  or  Arabic 
—  no,  let  me  see  "  — 

She  was  studying  it  abstractedly,  when  Bar- 
wood  took  it  from  her.  Scarcely  had  he  re 
ceived  it  into  his  hand  when  he  uttered  a  loud, 
frightened  exclamation  and  fell  back  into  a 
chair,  pale,  trembling,  almost  fainting. 

The  coin  was  a  Jewish  shekel,  with  the  pot  of 
manna  and  the  flowering  rod  of  Aaron,  the  high 
priest,  and  upon  one  side  was  stamped  or  cut 
the  mark  of  a  cross. 

He  pleaded  a  sudden  illness,  and  rode  home 
ward  in  a  state  of  indescribable  agitation. 


ONE  OF  THE  THIRTY  PIECES.  231 

V. 

YOUNG  FOETINBEAS. 

Barwood's  strange  and  almost  forgotten  con 
ception  was  thus  at  length  most  strikingly  re 
vived.  He  would  now  have  overthrown,  if  he 
could,  the  structure  which  he  had  so  carefully 
elaborated.  He  reviewed,  step  by  step,  all  the 
details  of  his  former  study,  but  no  argument 
availed  to  set  it  aside  in  the  face  of  the  ex 
traordinary  realization  it  had  received.  One 
of  the  thirty  pieces  was  found,  the  account  of 
the  early  father  verified. 

That  the  fatal  piece  should  appear  in  the 
hands  of  the  people  whom  of  all  others  he  most 
esteemed,  and  with  whom  his  own  fortunes 
were  the  most  intimately  bound  up,  was  al 
most  beyond  belief.  This,  then,  was  the  clew 
to  the  catalogue  of  Holbrook's  misfortunes  also. 
What  could  that  old  man  have  been,  to  be  so 
signally  marked  out  for  vengeance  ?  But  the 
question  of  vital  interest  now  was  whether  any 
thing  could  be  done  to  save  the  family  so  dear 
to  him  from  the  ruin  to  be  dreaded  as  certainly 
impending  over  them. 

With  the  recovery  of  some  calmness,  he  felt 
that  his  first  duty  was  to  remove  the  coin  from 


232  ONE  OF   THE  THIRTY  PIECES. 

their  possession.  How  was  it  to  be  done  ?  He 
could  not  disclose  to  them  his  acquaintance 
with  its  baleful  properties.  It  would  be  set 
down  as  the  vagary  of  a  disordered  brain,  and 
would  not  be  entertained  for  an  instant.  His 
object  must  be  accomplished,  if  at  all,  by 
stealth. 

Nearly  a  week  had  elapsed,  after  the  evening 
when  so  great  and  distracting  emotions  had 
crowded  into  his  life,  before  he  next  rode  to 
the  farm.  He  could  not  in  a  lesser  period  re 
duce  his  feelings  to  even  moderate  control.  He 
aroused  himself  to  an  unusual  degree  of  cheer 
fulness,  with  the  double  object  of  removing 
any  disagreeable  impression  attendant  upon  the 
manner  of  his  departure,  and  as  a  means  of  for 
warding  his  purpose.  The  subject  uppermost 
in  the  thoughts  of  both  was  at  first  carefully 
avoided. 

"  Those  coins  you  had  the  other  evening, 
Miss  Nina,  rather  interested  me,"  said  Bar- 
wood,  carelessly.  "  Would  you  mind  letting 
me  see  them  again  ?  " 

"I  should  be  glad  to  do  so,"  she  returned, 
"but  my  father  has  locked  them  up  for  the 
present,  and  gone  away  on  a  journey  which 
will  keep  him  a  fortnight,  taking  the  key  of  his 
cabinet  with  him.  I  know  he  will  show  them 
to  you  himself  with  pleasure  when  he  comes 
back." 


ONE  OF  THE  THIRTY  PIECES.  233 

Disappointed  in  this,  there  seemed  to  be  no 
other  immediate  resource,  and  Barwood  re 
verted  to  the  subject  of  his  love.  If  she  would 
but  consent  to  be  his,  he  might  disclose  the 
danger,  and  they  could  plan  together  to  avert 
it.  He  told  her  that  he  had  been  awaiting  her 
decision,  with  sleepless  anxiety,  and  appealed 
to  her  once  more  with  all  the  ardor  at  his  com 
mand.  As  he  finished  he  took  one  of  her  soft 
white  hands  into  his. 

She  did  not  withdraw  it,  but  yet  went  on  to 
tell  him  with  great  calmness  and  dignity  that 
the  consummation  he  desired  could  never  be. 
She  hoped  that  their  friendship  might  always 
continue,  but  as  for  any  closer  relationship,  she 
could  not  enter  into  it.  It  would  be  unjust  to 
him  without  the  genuine  affection  which  the 
situation  demanded,  and  which  she  felt  that  she 
had  not  to  give. 

Her  suitor  went  away  very  much  broken 
down.  He  said  that  his  life  had  become  a 
burden  to  him  ;  he  had  no  longer  a  use  for  it. 
The  next  day  he  came  again  and  acted  most 
strangely.  He  mingled  appeals  for  her  hand 
with  wild  talk  about  her  father's  coins,  in  such 
a  way  as  to  almost  frighten  her. 

The  few  succeeding  days  made  a  striking 
change  in  the  appearance  of  Barwood.  He 
became  pale,  haggard,  and  wasted,  and  seemed 


234  ONE  OF  THE  THIRTY  PIECES. 

to  have  lost  his  capacity  for  work  or  any  fixed 
attention.  He  sat  at  his  desk  staring  help 
lessly  at  his  papers,  for  hours  at  a  time.  The 
General  by  chance  observed  it,  and  being  with 
all  his  faults  a  rather  good-hearted  person, 
thought  he  was  sick,  and  told  him  to  go  home 
and  take  care  of  himself.  Barwood  did  so,  and 
there  delivered  himself  wholly  to  his  torment 
ing  reflections.  He  was  indeed  drawn  within 
the  influence  of  the  fatal  coin.  It  was  towards 
him  that  its  full  malignity  was  directed.  He 
believed  his  doom  was  approaching,  —  as  in 
deed  it  was.  He  gazed  at  his  altered  face  in 
a  mirror,  and,  pitying  himself  almost  as  if  he 
were  another,  pitying  the  fate  to  which  he  had 
come,  —  he,  who  had  once  expected  so  much, 
—  cried  aloud,  with  tears  streaming  down  his 
cheeks  : 

"  Poor  Henry  Barwood !  poor  Henry  Bar- 
wood  !  " 

Sympathy  need  rarely  be  enlisted  on  the  side 
of  the  unsuccessful  lover.  It  goes  out  naturally 
enough  to  one  who  seems  defrauded  of  a  happi 
ness  that  should  have  been  his.  But  what  is 
the  right  of  the  case,  dear  friends  ?  Because 
Chloe's  face  is  fair,  her  ways  winsome,  her  form 
of  a  distracting,  youthful  symmetry,  and  her 
hair  has  a  golden  shine,  does  that  establish 
a  tangible  claim  upon  her  in  favor  of  all  who 


ONE  OF  THE  THIRTY  PIECES.  235 

recognize  these  very  evident  facts  ?  No  !  sym 
pathy  is  very  well,  but  the  blame  cannot  be  cast 
upon  Chloe  every  time  that  Daphnis  chooses  to 
go  off  in  dudgeon  to  the  South  Sea  Islands,  or 
perchance  to  the  insurrection  in  Cuba,  or  make 
a  good-for-nothing  sot  of  himself.  It  is  one  of 
those  ill-adjustments  of  which  there  are  not  a 
few  in  life,  the  endurance  of  which  is  no  doubt 
of  service  in  some  direction  not  yet  fully  under 
stood. 

Upon  the  heels  of  all  the  rest  now  came  a 
message  from  Holbrook  farm  to  this  effect :  — 

"  My  father  has  just  returned,  but  we  are  off 
again  immediately.  It  is  more  than  possible 
that  we  shall  take  up  our  permanent  residence 
at  Richmond  again.  We  start  on  Monday. 
Shall  we  not  see  you  before  we  go?  If  not, 
believe  me  always, 

"  Faithfully  your  friend, 

"  NINA  HOLBROOK." 

The  distracted  young  man  mounted  his  horse 
at  once.  He  did  not  know  exactly  what  he  was 
going  to  do  or  say.  His  ideas  were  in  a  hope 
less  whirl  of  confusion,  and  there  was  a  numb 
ness  over  all  his  sensations.  He  gave  himself 
up  to  a  blind  destiny. 

He  found  Nina  sitting  under  the  shade  of  a 
large  old  apple-tree,  half  way  down  the  lawn, 


236  ONE  OF  THE  THIRTY  PIECES. 

near  a  little  plateau  serving  as  a  croquet 
ground.  He  tied  his  horse  to  the  fence  with 
out,  much  to  the  disappointment  of  the  two 
rollicking  negro  urchins,  and  walked  up.  Nina 
was  holding  in  her  lap  a  tray  of  coins,  and 
was  brightening  the  contents  with  a  piece  of 
chamois  leather.  She  assumed,  on  his  appear 
ance,  a  sprightliness  not  quite  natural  to  her, 
and  evidently  designed  to  obviate  the  awkward 
ness  of  their  peculiar  relations. 

"  We  have  had  an  accident,"  she  hurriedly 
said.  "  One  of  the  chimneys  fell  last  night, 
and  shook  down  the  plastering  in  papa's  room. 
The  glass  in  his  cabinet  of  coins  was  broken, 
and  the  rain  came  in  so  that,  this  morning,  it 
was  in  but  a  sorry  condition.  I  am  repairing 
damages." 

"Ah,  I  see,"  her  visitor  commented,  gloom- 

Hy- 

"If  I  were  superstitious,"  she  went  on,  in 
the  same  hasty,  nervous  way,  "  I  should  fear  of 
late  that  something  were  going  to  happen.  I 
have  spilled  salt,  crossed  funerals,  and  made 
one  of  a  party  of  thirteen  at  dinner." 

Ah,  if  she  but  knew,  indeed,  the  tragic  por 
tent  so  near  to  her !  Barwood  was  in  no  mood 
for  flippancy.  He  assumed  a  dozen  different 
positions  in  a  brief  space  of  time.  He  sat  first 
in  a  camp-chair  beside  her,  then  hurriedly 


ONE  OF  THE  THIRTY  PIECES.      237 

paced  up  and  down,  then  prostrated  himself, 
as  if  carelessly,  upon  the  grass.  The  old,  use 
less  argument  on  his  part  was  gone  through 
with  again.  Nina  told  him  plainly  at  last  that 
it  annoyed  her,  and  that  he  was  very  incon 
siderate  to  continue  a  subject  so  displeasing  to 
her. 

He  got  up  upon  this,  and  resumed  his  walk 
ing.  It  could  be  seen  that  he  twisted  and 
clutched  his  hands,  clasped  together  behind 
him.  As  he  came  by  her,  at  the  fifth  or  sixth 
turn,  it  happened  that  she  had  the  ominous 
Jewish  shekel  in  her  hand.  He  took  it  from 
her  with  a  certain  calmness,  and  looked  at  it  in 
a  curious  way. 

"  Yes,  it  is  indeed  fatal  money,"  he  cried 
suddenly,  in  a  harsh,  strident  voice,  "  and  I  am 
its  latest  victim  !  " 

He  hurled  the  coin  from  him  with  great  force. 
It  rose  high  in  the  air,  skimmed  towards  the 
woods,  and  fell  into  the  brook,  raising  a  little 
twinkle  on  the  water  where  it  struck. 

It  was  a  very  slight  incident.  No  magic 
hand,  such  a  hand  as  held  up  the  enchanted 
sword  Excalibar,  arose  from  the  waves  to  re 
ceive  the  coin.  The  beauty  of  the  August  day, 
the  peace  of  the  simple,  home-like  American 
landscape,  were  not  marred. 

A  storm  of  the  night  before  had  swollen  the 


238  ONE  OF  THE  THIRTY  PIECES. 

brook,  and  it  ran,  tumbling  and  yellow,  on  the 
way  to  its  junction  with  the  Potomac,  making 
little  of  this  trifling  addition  to  its  burdens. 

Nina  Holbrook  made  him  no  reproaches. 
She  knew  that  her  father  would  consider  the 
loss  irreparable,  yet  she  found  no  words  in 
which  to  characterize  this  extraordinary  rude 
ness  and  spoliation. 

After  a  turn  or  two  more  of  his  walk  Bar- 
wood  again  paused  close  beside  her. 

"  For  the  last  time,  I  ask  you,"  said  he;  "I 
have  urged  everything  and  can  say  no  more." 

Nina  did  not  reply. 

"  Is  it  all  of  no  use  ?  " 

Still  she  did  not  reply.  Her  eyes  were  low 
ered  upon  her  work. 

"  Is  that  your  answer  ?  "  he  persisted. 

"Yes,  that  is  my  answer,"  she  said,  impa 
tiently,  gazing  up  at  him.  "  I  am  engaged  to 
Mars  Brown." 

He  went  forward  a  little  distance,  and  stood, 
in  a  tottering  way.  The  girl  saw  him  draw 
forth  a  little  revolver,  one  he  carried  sometimes 
when  riding  late  in  the  evening,  and  hold  it  to 
his  temple.  He  seemed  to  deliberate  one  ter 
rible  moment  —  while  she  sat  spell-bound  as  if 
by  a  nightmare.  Then  he  fired. 

She  tried  to  reach  his  lifeless  body,  but  fell 
fainting  on  the  way. 


ONE  OF  THE  THIRTY  PIECES.  239 

Mars  Brown,  riding  also  to  Holbrook  as  it 
happened,  was  at  the  time  within  sound,  and 
almost  sight,  of  the  shot. 

Upon  the  closing  scenes  of  Hamlet,  where 
the  characters,  after  their  period  of  stormy  con 
flict  and  exquisite  anguish,  lie  strewn  in  vio 
lent  deaths,  arrives,  at  the  head  of  his  marching 
army,  the  young  Norway  Conqueror  Fortinbras. 
Tall,  sturdy,  in  his  chain-mail,  the  impersona 
tion  of  rugged  life  and  success,  he  enters,  and 
leans  upon  his  sword  above  the  pitiable  spec 
tacle. 

So,  too,  the  brilliant  Mars  Brown,  elegant  in 
figure,  well-dressed,  joyous,  lightly  cynical  in 
his  thoughts,  came  half  whistling  up  the  path, 
cutting  off  the  clover-tops  with  his  stick.  He 
was  in  a  most  excellent  humor.  The  sights  and 
sounds  of  rural  life  —  of  which  he  was  not,  in 
general,  too  fond  —  the  pleasing  prospect,  the 
aromas,  the  dancing  butterflies,  appealed  to  him 
to-day  with  an  attraction  they  had  rarely  exer 
cised  before. 

"  Egad  !  this  is  n't  so  bad,  you  know,"  he 
said  within  himself. 

The  next  moment  he  reached  the  large,  old 
apple-tree,  and  stood  beside  the  two  inanimate 
bodies. 

Thus  we  have  traced  here,  in  detail,  the  sue- 


240  ONE  OF  THE  THIRTY  PIECES. 

cessive  steps  of  a  somewhat  remarkable  history. 
The  Washington  dispatch  of  a  New  York  paper 
summarized  it  much  more  briefly,  the  morning 

after  the  calamity,  as  follows  : 

"  Henry  Barwood,  a  young  clerk  employed 
in  the  Bureau  of  Ethereal  Claims  of  the  Treas 
ury  Department,  came  to  his  death  yesterday, 
by  the  discharge  of  a  pistol  in  his  own  hands. 
The  shooting  was  at  first  said  to  have  been  ac 
cidental,  but  later  developments  show  that  he 
had  been  ill  and  depressed  for  some  time,  and 
that  he  was  given  to  eccentricities,  which  make 
the  theory  of  insanity,  taking  the  form  of  sui 
cidal  mania,  much  more  probable." 


McINTYRE'S   FALSE  FACE. 


MclNTYEE  was  a  rough-and-ready  young 
fisherman  of  the  Maine  coast,  —  rough,  but 
after  all  meaning  no  great  harm,  —  who  intro 
duced  to  his  home  on  Little  Box  Island  the 
first  sample  it  had  ever  seen  of  a  "  false  face." 

The  object  thus  termed  was  one  of  the  or 
dinary  grotesque  masks  of  the  carnival  time, 
such  as  it  is  in  American  cities.  It  had  a  pro 
digious,  rubicund  nose,  goggling  eyes,  and  a 
very  highly-colored  complexion  in  general.  The 
false  face  enjoyed  for  a  short  time  after  its 
arrival  a  most  distinguished  success.  Boister 
ous  guffaws  issued  from  the  single  store  on 
the  wharf  that  evening,  and  an  unusual  attend 
ance  was  drawn  to  the  always  popular  resort. 

"  Them  things  had  n't  ought  to  be  allowed," 
said  one  member  of  the  company  to  the  rest, 
recovering  but  slowly  from  the  fright  that  had 
been  put  upon  him  with  it  as  he  first  entered 
the  door. 

16 


242  MclNTYRE'S  FALSE  FACE. 

"  What  in  time  be  they  for  ?  "  inquired  a 
younger  member,  with  an  ingenuous  scientific 
interest. 

In  reply  a  traveled  associate  explained  to 
him  some  of  the  goings-on  he  had  once  seen 
with  them  at  a  German  Easter  ball  in  Boston. 

Next,  Mclntyre,  desirous  to  extend  the  field 
of  his  triumphs,  slipped  out  with  his  false  face 
to  slyly  call  at  the  abode  of  the  Skeltons. 
This  Skelton  boarded  the  quarry  hands,  when 
there  were  any,  —  for  it  was  a  quarry  of  much 
less  importance  than  that  on  Great  Box  Island, 
and  now  and  then  shut  down.  His  daughter 
Lill  was  called  the  greatest  feminine  case  "  to 
carry  on  "  in  the  settlement.  What  with  Lill 
and  the  quarry  hands,  the  fun  at  Skelton 's  was 
certain  to  be  fast  and  furious,  and  some  of  the 
audience  at  the  store  followed  discreetly  behind 
in  order  to  witness  it. 

Mclntyre  knocked  at  the  door  of  a  large 
kitchen,  used  also  as  a  sitting-room,  and  en 
tered.  He  was  surprised  to  find  but  a  single 
person  present,  and  that  the  one  of  all  his  cir 
cle  of  acquaintance  whom  he  knew  the  least. 
It  was  the  quiet,  delicate-looking,  young  new 
wife  of  Amos  Cooley.  She  sat  in  a  chair  ex 
pectantly,  a  shawl  drawn  over  her  head,  and  a 
tin  pail  in  her  hand,  having  come  over  on  an 
errand  for  milk.  Amos  had  married  his  wife 


McINTYRE'S  FALSE  FACE.  243 

from  an  island  of  the  archipelago  still  smaller 
than  Little  Box,  and  inhabited  by  but  one  other 
family  besides  her  own. 

She  started  np  on  the  entry  of  Mclntyre  in 
his  hideous  false  face,  gasped,  as  at  sight  of 
something  incredible,  put  her  hand  to  her  side, 
screamed  horribly,  and  fell  to  the  floor  in  vio 
lent  convulsions,  —  all  before  the  jester  had  a 
chance  to  snatch  off  the  absurd  imposition  and 
reassure  her. 

She  was  out  of  her  mind  for  a  month,  and 
within  two  years  she  died,  never  having  re 
covered  from  the  shock. 

Amos  Cooley,  her  husband,  who  later  took  to 
drink  and  did  not  long  survive  her,  in  the  first 
fury  of  his  rage,  rushed  in  search  of  Mclntyre 
and  struck  at  him  with  an  axe. 

"  I  did  n't  go  to  do  it,  Amos  !  "  cried  the 
luckless  masquerader  deprecatingly,  but  without 
the  least  avail. 

Only  the  interposition  of  friends,  who  hur 
ried  him  at  once  into  a  boat  and  off  to  the  main 
land,  saved  him  from  instant  destruction.  Later, 
Amos  even  took  his  gun  and  hunted  him  there, 
and  was  so  unrelenting  in  his  hate  that  Mcln 
tyre  finally  went  "  out  South,"  as  it  was  said, 
where  he  was  supposed  to  have  permanently 
settled. 

This  is  the  whole  of  his  personal  connection 


244  McIN TYRE'S  FALSE  FACE. 

with  these  adventures,  but  the  grimace  of  his 
trumpery  mask  went  on,  by  a  strange  fate, 
smiling  a  fixed  and  baleful  influence  down  into 
the  lives  of  later  generations. 

II. 

Amos  Cooley's  wife  left  behind  her  two  in 
fant  sons.  The  first  was  born  not  long  after 
her  fright,  the  second  a  year  later.  These  chil 
dren  were  called  respectively  Albon  and  Al- 
rick,  in  deference  to  a  taste  for  the  ornate  and 
novel  prevailing  in  the  locality  —  where  were 
also  found,  for  instance,  a  Uno  and  Una,  a 
Coello  and  Coella,  a  Martecia,  a  Violena,  and  a 
Leonorena. 

Albon,  the  elder,  proved  to  be  a  hopeless  im 
becile.  Nothing,  on  the  other  hand,  was  ad 
duced  against  Alrick  but  a  sullenness  of  tem 
per,  which  grew  upon  him,  and  might  have 
been  justified  perhaps  by  many  mortifications 
he  endured  on  his  brother's  account,  and  his 
general  situation.  Albon,  the  idiot,  became  a 
standing  resource  for  the  amusement  of  the 
island  in  every  idle  hour.  He  grew  up  large, 
spare,  and  loose-jointed,  and  ran  about  in  a 
shambling  way,  with  his  head  down.  He  had 
little  or  no  forehead,  but  his  appetite  was  tre 
mendous. 


McINTYRE'S  FALSE  FACE.  245 

Sometimes  lie  would  turn  upon  a  persecutor 
and  cry,  "  You  clog,  you  !  "  likening  him  pa 
thetically  to  that  which  he  himself,  perhaps, 
most  resembled. 

The  two  were  grudgingly  maintained  by  an 
uncle,  on  their  father's  side,  till  the  elder  was 
towards  his  twelfth  year.  It  was  said  that  this 
uncle  made  Albon  sleep  in  the  cellar  and  beat 
Alrick  cruelly  for  slight  cause.  He  made  legal 
affidavit,  finally,  that  he  was  unable  any  longer 
to  continue  this  benevolent  support,  and  threw 
them  upon  the  cold  charity  of  the  public. 

A  peculiar  problem  was  now  mooted.  Little 
Box  Island,  under  the  laws  of  the  sovereign 
state  of  which  it  formed  a  part,  was  organized 
(as  a  community  having  insufficient  inhabi 
tants  to  be  a  township)  under  the  primitive  form 
of  government  of  a  plantation.  There  was  no 
copy  of  the  revised  statutes  on  the  island,  and 
no  case  of  pauperism  had  before  arisen  ;  but 
it  was  the  opinion  of  the  most  eminent  jurists 
assembled  in  Maxon's  store  that  a  plantation 
makes  its  own  roads  and  schools  its  own  chil 
dren,  but  if  it  has  any  paupers  to  be  taken 
care  of  it  sends  them  to  the  nearest  town. 

The  constable  of  the  island,  therefore,  con 
veyed  Albon  and  Alrick  to  the  nearest  town, 
which  was  Great  Box  Island,  about  the  same 
distance  out  to  sea  as  itself,  and  twelve  miles 


246  McINTYRE'S  FALSE  FACE. 

to  the  eastward,  —  and  there  happily  got  rid  of 
them. 

But  in  less  than  a  week,  when  the  govern 
ment  of  Little  Box  Island  was  in  session,  the 
constable  of  Great  Box  Island  strode  into  their 
midst,  carrying  Albon  and  Alrick  by  the  collars 
of  their  jackets,  one  in  each  hand,  and  set  them 
down  on  the  floor  with  a  thump. 

"  Here  they  be,  and  don't  you  forget  it,"  he 
said.  "  You  can't  send  'em  over  our  way  no 
more.  We  've  got  enough  of  our  own  to  tend 
to.  Ef  I  'd  a  ben  down  to  the  poor-farm  to 
Baker's  Neck,  the  day  they  come,  they  would  n't 
a  ben  left  there,  you  bet.  Where  paupers  is 
born  and  brung  up  is  where  it  belongs  fur  'em 
to  be  took  care  of.  We  don't  bundle  none  of 
ourn  over  to  you,  and  expect  you  to  shell  out 
for  their  grub." 

The  magnates  of  Little  Box,  in  consterna 
tion,  reiterated  their  theory  of  the  legal  aspects 
of  the  case.  The  constable  of  Great  Box  was 
severely  caustic. 

"That  don't  hardly  jibe,"  he  said;  "that 
won't  wash.  Go  to  law  about  it,  if  you  want 
to  !  Go  on  !  take  it  up  to  the  Supreme  Court 
at  Wash'nton  or  to  the  High  Jint  Commishin 
at  Genevy,  for  what  we  care.  Mebbe  it  '11 
cost  ye  as  much  'fore  you  're  through  with  it  's 
though  ye  'd  tended  to  the  young  uns  at  home." 


McINTYRPS  FALSE  FACE.  247 

The  Little  Box  magistrates  appeared  im 
pressed  by  this  consideration,  and  were  upon 
the  point  of  making  some  new  provision  for  the 
infants,  when  one  half  of  their  embarrassment 
was  suddenly  removed.  A  fanner  of  Great  Box 
Island,  one  Bowker,  happening  to  be  present, 
declared  that  he  wanted  a  boy,  and  would  take 
Alrick  away  with  him. 

"  I  have  got  a  house  full  of  girls,"  he  ex 
plained,  "  and  there  ought  to  be  some  boy  round 
somewheres. 

"  You  could  go  along  o'  me  and  tend  sheep, 
and  do  chores,  and  go  to  school  some  between 
times,  —  could  n't  ye,  think  ?  "  he  said,  address 
ing  the  protege. 

Alrick  directed  at  him  a  furtive  look  out  of 
his  bright,  small  eyes,  in  which  there  was  a 
touch  of  obliquity  at  moments  of  agitation,  and 
gave  in  reply  a  nod  of  his  mop-like  head,  but 
did  not  speak. 

A  small  sum  was,  upon  this,  voted  for  Albon, 
who,  for  his  part,  went  back  to  the  guardian 
ship  of  his  relative,  and,  sustained  somehow  by 
his  wonderful  appetite,  slept  regularly  in  his 
cellar  as  before  for  many  a  long  year  there 
after. 

Alrick  crossed  over  by  sea  with  his  new  pat 
ron,  and  came  to  a  large  old  farm-house,  weath 
er-beaten  but  comfortable,  which  combined  with 


248  MdNTYEE'S  FALSE  FACE. 

numerous  out-buildings  to  make  up  a  pleasing 
mass.  He  slept  here,  in  the  attic,  on  a  cot, 
spread  with  the  horse-blankets  and  a  patch 
work  calico  quilt.  About  him  were  bags  of 
meal  and  seed  corn,  festoons  of  dried  apples,  an 
old  horse-hair  trunk,  the  best  harness  and  whip, 
used  only  on  state  occasions,  and  the  farmer's 
boots  and  oil-skin  suit  for  rainy  weather.  For 
the  first  time  in  his  life  he  was  well-fed,  warm, 
and  contented.  He  did  not  mind  the  scamper 
ing  mice.  He  liked  the  bar  of  sunlight  that 
came  into  the  dusky  place,  and  traced  the 
squares  of  the  window  on  the  floor. 

On  summer  mornings  he  was  awakened  by 
the  scratching  of  the  branches  of  a  tree  against 
the  panes,  and  the  cackle  of  the  barn-yard 
fowls.  In  the  spring  he  smelled  the  fragrance 
of  lilacs  and  cherry  blossoms,  pure  and  sweet 
with  dew.  Processions  of  white  schooners  pa 
raded  along  the  blue  belt  of  sea  plainly  in  sight 
before  him.  He  followed  the  cows  to  pasture, 
stopping  with  them  as  they  munched  lazily  a 
mouthful  of  toothsome  grass  here  and  there  on 
the  way.  He  turned  the  crank  of  the  churn, 
brought  in  fire-wood,  gee-hawed  the  oxen,  fol 
lowed  the  mowers  with  his  rake,  topped  tur 
nips,  lent  the  farmer  a  hand  at  putting  up  a 
new  length  of  fence  or  mending  a  stone  wall. 
Between  times  he  got  such  schooling  — .  for 


McINTYRVS  FALSE  FACE.  249 

which  in  truth  he  showed  no  great  inclination 
—  as  was  possible  under  the  circumstances. 

He  was  often  perverse  and  sullen  in  the  be 
ginning.  The  farmer's  wife  had  to  keep  a  stick 
for  him  in  the  fire-place  "  to  break  his  temper 
with,"  as  she  said. 

"  We  don't  want  no  boys  round  here  that 
won't  mind,"  she  told  him.  "  Our  boys  allus 
had  to  mind  "  (her  boys  were  all  dead  or  mar 
ried  off  now),  "  and  you  will." 

It  was  predicted  by  the  neighbors  that  he 
would  run  away  as  a  former  boy  had  done,  — 
one  "  Fred,"  who  had  gone  from  Bowker's,  tak 
ing  stolen  property  with  him,  and  joined  a  cir 
cus.  Why  should  not  this  one  follow  suit  ? 

But  Alrick  did  not  run  away.  On  the  con 
trary  he  came,  through  humane  treatment,  to 
seem  an  entirely  tractable  and  reliable  person. 
He  was  a  playmate  of  the  children  and  a  mem 
ber  of  the  family  on  equal  terms.  He  played 
with  the  daughters  of  the  house,  with  Marietta, 
Caroline,  and  Idella,  the  youngest,  whom  he 
came  particularly  to  like.  Up  to  fifteen  he  was 
of  a  slender  build,  swift  and  agile  of  movement, 
but  in  the  hobbledehoy  period  he  grew  stocky 
and  took  a  rustic  heaviness  which  remained 
with  him,  though  he  was  at  no  time  a  bad- 
looking  fellow. 


250  McINTYftE'S  FALSE  FACE. 

III. 

The  quarry  on  Great  Box  Island,  once  pros 
perous,  had  "  failed  up,"  as  the  islanders  said, 
owing  its  employees,  store-keepers,  and  others. 
It  came,  through  a  legal  claim,  into  the  hands 
of  a  large  building  firm  of  New  York.  Pend 
ing  the  settlement  of  some  complication  about 
the  title,  the  firm  sent  a  young  man,  a  nephew 
of  its  senior  partner,  to  keep  a  general  eye  out, 
and  see  that  none  of  the  movable  property  was 
disturbed. 

The  young  man,  Francis  Fosdick  by  name, 
found,  on  his  arrival,  a  straggling  hamlet  of 
poor  wooden  houses,  catching  such  a  foothold 
as  it  could  on  a  hillside  of  granite  bowlders. 
There  were  no  noticeable  trees.  Its  midsum 
mer  aspect  was  almost  as  dreary  as  that  of  mid 
winter  elsewhere.  His  quarry  was  on  the  hill 
to  the  right.  Rust-colored  water  stood  deep  in 
its  pits.  The  blocks  taken  from  them,  some 
for  sills  and  doorsteps,  others  to  roar  as  Bel 
gian  pavement  under  the  traffic  of  a  great  city, 
lay  forlornly  about.  Here  was  a  broken  der 
rick  ;  there  a  great  pair  of  rusted  wheels ;  again 
a  forge,  with  scraps  of  iron  and  mildewed 
leather ;  by  it  a  tool-house,  and  again  a  powder- 
house,  with  padlocked  doors  and  a  portentous 
air  of  mystery. 


McINTYRPS  FALSE  FACE.  251 

"  Kinder  dull,  like,  around,"  said  a  denizen 
of  the  place,  picking  his  way  past,  as  the  new 
comer  sat  meditating  near  his  charge. 

Fosdick  admitted  that  it  was  dull,  and  listened 
to  the  denizen's  account  of  what  it  used  to  be, 
—  how  there  had  been  more  than  fifty  fellers 
at  work  ;  how  they  used  to  be  down  to  the 
wharf  every  night,  holding  calico  parties  and 
other  festivities,  in  the  hall. 

The  denizen  passed  on,  and  he  continued  his 
meditations.  The  gist  of  them  was  that  such 
a  banishment  seemed  rather  hard  lines  for  a 
person  of  his  age,  twenty-four,  a  club  man,  who 
had  attained  to  a  dog-cart,  and  confidently  as- 
pired  to  a  four-in-hand.  Ah,  if  the  issue  of  his 
great  speculation  in  the  stock  of  C.  Q.  &  K. 
had  been  different !  But  then  he  recalled  to 
himself  that  he  had  made  the  C.  Q.  &  K.  ven 
ture.  He  had  been  lured  into  it  by  the  wiles 
of  one  in  whose  employ  he  was  to  have  learned 
the  business  of  banking  and  brokerage,  and  had 
lost  all  his  own  patrimony,  together  with  a  good 
part  of  the  substance  of  a  confiding  aunt  whom 
he  in  his  turn  had  innocently  inveigled.  It 
had  been  decidedly  harder  lines  recently  when 
he  was  without  any  occupation,  brow-beaten  on 
all  sides,  and  humbly  doubting  whether  he 
should  ever  make  a  figure  in  the  world  at  all. 
The  facing  of  the  disagreeable,  he  had  been 


252  McINTYRFS  FALSE  FACE. 

informed,  was  one  of  the  first  conditions  of 
success.  The  prospect  here  was  surely  disa 
greeable  enough  to  abound  with  hope,  even 
though  it  might  not  endure  more  than  a  couple 
of  months.  He  set  himself,  therefore,  to  face 
his  new  situation  resolutely.  He  read  some  of 
the  books  he  had  brought  with  him,  cultivated 
the  acquaintance  of  the  fishermen  and  store 
keepers,  and  sometimes  took  a  dory  and  went 
out  to  the  stretch  of  water  called  the  Reach,  to 
fish.  There  was  one  of  the  storekeepers  who 
was  in  the  habit  of  scrawling  rude  diagrams  of 
yachts  and  the  like  on  sheets  of  brown  wrap 
ping  paper,  and  ornamenting  his  walls  with 
them. 

Fosdick  complimented  him  as  (in  a  style  of 
phraseology  at  the  date)  an  excellent  "dravv- 
ist." 

44  Sho  !  "  returned  the  drawist,  with  affected 
modesty.  "  I  draw  'em  off  jess  's  they  come. 
I  never  learned  no  rules." 

The  young  daughter  of  the  house  where  he 
took  up  his  quarters,  dressed  up,  in  the  evening, 
after  her  day's  work,  and  played  upon  the  me- 
lodeon  ;  but  Fosdick  found  in  her  a  common- 
placeness  of  view,  a  lack  of  imagination  and 
liveliness,  which  made  her  but  a  slight  resource 
for  his  entertainment. 

He  took  to  exploring  the  island,  and  thought 


McINTYRVS  FALSE  FACE.  253 

the  outlook  in  its  interior  far  pleasanter  than 
that  at  the  landing.  He  recalled  the  fag-ends 
of  some  stray  botany  and  geology,  and  tried  to 
develop  bucolic  tastes. 

On  a  certain  first  day  of  August  he  came,  in 
the  neighborhood  of  the  south  shore,  where  the 
view  of  the  ocean  was  broad  and  the  bluffs  high 
and  crested  at  intervals  with  dense  small  groves 
of  spruce,  fir,  and  cedars,  to  a  large  wooden 
farmhouse  with  numerous  out-buildings  as  gray 
as  the  granite  bowlders  in  the  surrounding  sheep 
pastures. 

"  It 's  the  kind  of  thing  you  read  about,"  said 
Fosdick  to  himself,  quite  impressed  at  the  sight. 

Desirous  to  view  it  nearer  at  hand,  he  went 
to  an  open  door  from  which  feminine  faces  were 
peering  at  him,  and  made  the  conventional  re 
quest  for  a  glass  of  milk.  An  elderly  woman 
in  a  faded  red  and  black  delaine  wrapper,  one 
end  of  a  coil  of  rusty  hair  falling  down  her 
neck,  was  engaged  within,  together  with  a  pale 
young  girl,  in  domestic  duties. 

"  'Fears  to  be  a  close  day  for  traveling''  said 
the  old  woman.  "  Walk  into  the  settin'-room 
and  set  down.  Marietta  '11  fetch  you  the  milk 
there." 

The  kitchen  with  an  immense  fire-place,  and 
a  great  wheel  for  spinning  wool  set  out  for  use 
in  the  sitting-room,  were  sufficiently  in  keeping 
with  the  interesting  exterior. 


254  McINTYRE'S  FALSE  FACE. 

"  But  is  n't  there  in  the  whole  country," 
mused  the  visitor,  impatiently,  as  he  sipped  his 
milk  in  the  presence  of  the  pale  Marietta,  "  a 
person  of  the  feminine  sex  worth  looking  at  a 
second  time  ?  " 

In  the  very  instant  of  this  criticism  a  door 
opened,  admitting  another  young  girl,  who  en 
tered  saunteringly,  and  sat  down  in  a  small 
wooden  rocking-chair,  assuming  an  .indifferent 
air,  as  though  the  fact  of  a  stranger's  being 
there  had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  her 
coming.  Fosdick  felt  his  question  at  once  and 
charmingly  answered.  The  sterile  region  did 
not  produce  much  that  was  attractive,  he  de 
cided,  but  when  it  did,  it  made  a  complete  job 
of  it.  There  was  in  her  a  certain  half  Puri 
tan,  half  worldly  daintiness  or  elegance  of  ef 
fect,  which  gave  a  decided  piquancy.  She  wore 
the  simplest  of  gingham  frocks,  a  neat  ruffle 
ending  its  skirt.  A  row  of  smoked  pearl  but 
tons  which  fastened  it  down  the  back,  in  young 
girlish  fashion,  were  not  fully  buttoned.  Here 
was  a  type  justifying  all  that  eulogists  have 
said  of  rustic  comeliness.  Her  lightish  hair 
was  cut  square  across  her  forehead.  Her  nose 
turned  in  just  the  slightest  degree  upward. 
The  blue  of  her  eyes  was  of  an  opaque  kind, 
and  very  distinctly  visible  across  the  room,  so 
that  it  connected  itself  with  the  blue  of  the  sea 


McINTYRE'S  FALSE  FACE.  255 

and  the  mountains  of  the  mainland,  showing 
through  the  open  doors.  She  folded  her  arms 
across  the  breast  of  a  very  slender  figure,  and 
rocked  in  her  chair.  The  motion  showed  a 
pair  of  neat  small  ankles,  in  slippers  retained 
in  place  by  elastics  over  the  instep. 

Marietta  addressed  this  person,  who  was  her 
sister,  as  Idella. 

The  young  man,  thus  impressed  by  Miss 
Idella,  was  of  much  better  looks  and  manners 
than  the  visitors  that  usually  came  to  them, 
and  she  on  her  side  was  wondering,  through 
her  assumed  indifference,  who  he  might  be. 
He  was  certainly  not  a  peddler,  neither  did  he 
sell  lightning-rods,  cabinet-organs,  sewing-ma 
chines,  nor  reapers.  Nor  with  any  more  rea 
son  could  he  be  taken  for  one  of  those  plausi 
ble  sailor-men  who  try  to  sell  at  exorbitant 
prices  common  silks  and  velvets,  purporting  to 
have  been  smuggled. 

Fosdick  made  as  much  conversation  as  possi 
ble  in  order  not  to  have  to  go  away  too  soon. 
He  complimented  the  milk,  and  told  them  the 
old  story  of  the  city  lady  who  resented,  in  the 
country,  being  served  with  milk  with  the  cream 
on  it,  on  the  score  that  it  was  a  greasy  yellow 
scum.  It  was  not  old  there,  and  was  well  re 
ceived.  The  housewife  also  came  in  to  listen. 

"  Which  way  was  you  from  ?  "  she  inquired, 


256  McINTYRE'S  FALSE  FACE. 

beginning  to  manifest  an  interest.  He  was  not 
loath  to  establish  himself  in  their  respect,  and 
so  told  them  of  his  coming  from  New  York  and 
his  purpose  in  the  island.  The  pretty  one  of 
the  two  sisters,  who  had  been  offish  at  first,  also 
gave  him  more  of  her  attention  on  learning 
this.  It  took  an  aggressive  manner,  but  this 
was  only  a  form  of  coquetry. 

"  I  don't  like  New  Yorkers,"  she  said  to  him, 
pertly.  "  You  never  can  trust  them." 

"  Perhaps  it  is  due,  in  the  cases  you  have 
noticed,  to  association  at  some  time  with  Great 
Box  Islanders,"  he  returned. 

"  That 's  going  a  long  ways  for  a  reason." 

Sudden,  wild,  laughing  shrieks  without  in 
terrupted  at  this  point  the  exchange  of  repar 
tee. 

A  third  young  girl,  followed  by  a  stout  young 
farm-hand,  burst  into  the  kitchen  in  a  tumult; 
but  seeing  the  stranger  they  retreated  through 
opposite  doors  almost  as  precipitately  as  they 
came. 

"  Ca'line  Bowker,  what  is  the  matter  ? " 
called  her  mother. 

There  was  a  sound  of  hasty  ablutions  in  a 
tin  basin  without.  Then  the  pursued  girl  re 
turned,  breathless  still,  and  with  a  furtive  de 
mure  look  at  the  visitor  at  the  same  time,  from 
a  pair  of  nice  dark  eyes,  explained,  — 


McINTYRE'S  FALSE  FACE.  257 

"  Alrick  jumped  out  and  chased  me,  just  as 
I  was  goin'  to  blow  the  horn  for  supper,  and  he 
rubbed  blackberries  in  my  face." 

"  He  is  the  roughest  boy.  I  guess  I  'd  make 
him  stop,"  said  Idella. 

The  pursuer  himself,  somewhat  later,  —  hav 
ing  made  a  toilet  by  soddening  his  stiff  hair 
with  water  and  bringing  it  up  in  a  pair  of  wisps 
forward  of  his  ears  —  came  in  and  leaned  a  stal 
wart  shoulder  against  the  door-jamb. 

"  Has  the  calves  been  fed,  Alrick  ?  "  inquired 
Mrs.  Bowker. 

"  Yes  'm.  I  give  'm  all  the  feed  there  was. 
That  there  chunky-built  one  is  the  fearfulest 
eater,  'most,  I  ever  see." 

"  Ca'line,  you  come  and  see  what  there  is  to 
make  some  more  mash  of  for  'em,"  said  Mrs. 
Bowker. 

"  Ca-a'line,"  mimicked  Idella,  with  impatient 
emphasis,  under  her  breath,  to  the  visitor.  "  I 
wish  she  would  call  her  Carrie  or  even  Cad  — 
but  she  won't." 

"You  're  all  right,  though,"  ventured  Fos- 
dick  —  whether  it  was  his  real  opinion  or  not 
is  not  relevant,  —  "  you  have  a  very  pretty 
name." 

"  Do  you  think  so  ?  Well,  I  don't  like  my 
last  one." 

"  Oh,  you  '11  get  rid  of  that  easily  enough." 

16 


258  MclNTYRE'S  FALSE  FACE. 

"  No,  I  guess  not,"  she  returned,  with  a  dep 
recating  rising  inflection. 

But  she  gave  him  a  grateful,  approving  glance 
for  the  compliment. 

Alrick,  on  the  other  hand,  gave  a  person  who 
perpetrated  novel  and  wishy-washy  talk  like 
that  a  glance  of  a  kind  quite  the  reverse. 

When  Fosdick  had  gone  away,  he  was  the 
subject  of  discussion  at  the  supper-table.  Al 
rick  leveled  coarse  sarcasms  at  him,  represent 
ing  his  ease  and  polish  of  manner,  so  unwonted 
there,  as  foppery  and  a  "  putting  on  of  frills." 
But  the  girls  defended  him,  particularly  Idella, 
who  found  herself  at  one  time  so  considerably 
in  advanse  of  the  rest  in  his  praise  that  she 
came  to  an  abrupt  halt. 

"Look  at  Dell  blush  !  "  cried  Etta. 
"  Shut   up  !  "  Idella  returned.     "  I   guess  I 
ain't  blushing." 

But  she  blushed  now  if  not  before. 
Fosdick  carried  a  pleasing  image  in  his  mind 
that  day,  pursuing  his  way  back  through  the 
woodland  and  over  the  long  stretch  of  road 
lying  between  it  and  his  forlorn  quarries.  In 
the  general  dreariness,  any  touch  of  grace  in 
his  surroundings  took  an  extreme  value,  and 
perhaps  he  exaggerated  that  which  he  had  just 
found.  It  was  not  formal  beauty,  but  only 
piquant  comeliness  of  a  purely  Yankee  sort. 


McINTYRE'S  FALSE  FACE.  259 

It  coincided  with  a  notion  of  his  of  something 
daintily,  ideally  French,  entertained  before  he 
had  made  the  European  tour. 

The  other  sisters  too,  though  rustic  more 
after  the  common  order,  were  not  uninterest 
ing.  Caroline  was  almost  pretty,  and  Marietta 
was  of  a  certain  activity  of  mind,  reaching  out 
to  a  suggestion  of  something  above  her  station. 
He  made  the  pretext  of  desiring  to  find  a 
vein  of  copper,  said  to  exist  somewhere  in  the 
neighborhood,  to  stop  soon  at  the  farm-house 
again. 

"  I  want  to  know  if  they  set  store  by  that 
yet,"  said  Mrs.  Bowker,  stopping  the  movement 
of  her  rolling-pin  to  gossip.  "  There  ain't  noth 
ing  to  it  but  fools'  gold.  My  son  from  Cali- 
forny  told  'em  so  years  ago,  when  he  was  on." 

"Californy ! "  said  Marietta,  giving  her  mother 
an  apologetic  hug. 

"  Well,  't  is  Californy,  hain't  it ;  San  Fran 
cisco  is  ?  "  returned  the  old  woman,  hopeless  of 
improvement. 

Idella  donned  her  large  straw  hat,  and  went 
as  far  as  the  gate  with  Fosdick,  to  give  him  the 
bearings  of  the  copper-mine.  When  there,  he 
praised  the  fine  old  farm-house  and  the  scenery 
round  about.  She  was  highly  indifferent  as  to 
the  view.  As  to  the  house,  she  said  incredu 
lously  :  "  Yes,  it  '11  look  a  little  better  when  it 


260  McINTYR&S  FALSE  FACE. 

gets  some  paint  on  it.  Father  is  going  to  paint 
it  in  the  fall." 

"  Never  let  him  touch  it  with  a  brush.  You 
will  spoil  it,"  protested  the  connoisseur  warmly. 

Idella  took  this  for  more  banter,  but  it  was 
of  a  kind  beyond  her,  and  she  kept  silence.  A 
man  of  thirty  or  so,  with  a  sandy  beard,  now 
drove  by  in  a  wagon,  and  she  exchanged  salu 
tations  with  him. 

"  It 's  the  mail  boy,"  she  explained.  "  He  's 
always  asking  me  to  ride  with  him  when  he 
passes  along.  He  said  to  me  the  other  day: 
4  Here  you  're  gittin'  to  be  a  regular  old  maid, 
Dell ;  why  don't  you  ever  stir  out  anywheres  ?  ' 
He  's  got  two  nice  horses  and  a  farm,  I  guess 
I  '11  '  go  for  '  him." 

She  laughed,  and  Fosdick  thought  it  a  very 
musical  sort  of  laugh. 

"  Oh,  '  go  for '  me,"  he  appealed. 

"  Maybe  I  will,"  and  she  laughed  again. 

He  had  said  that  he  would  stop  on  his  return 
and  let  them  know  what  he  found  at  the  mine. 
Marietta  and  Caroline  were  still  in  calico  then, 
but  Idella  had  put  on  more  careful  raiment. 
This  new  dress,  he  saw  it  so  often  that  he  came 
to  know  it,  was  a  kind  of  plaited  jacket  and 
skirt,  in  modest  dark  brown,  with  a  simple 
white  collar.  It  seemed  eminently  adapted  to 
her  circumstances,  yet  at  the  same  time  of  a 


MclNTYRFSS  FALSE  FACE.  261 

certain  stamp  of  distinction.  Hers,  he  thought, 
was  one  of  those  cases  of  natural  taste  and  deft 
ness,  the  more  to  be  valued  when  found  amid 
un propitious  surroundings. 

On  his  return  home  he  turned  the  talk  upon 
these  new  acquaintances  with  the  matter-of-fact 
Miss  Emeline,  his  landlord's  daughter.  It  ap 
peared  that  there  was  some  sort  of  a  feud  be 
tween  herself  and  them.  Her  accounts  of  them 
were  not  of  the  most  favorable. 

She  considered  them,  among  other  things, 
"  stuck  up." 

"  What  about  ?  " 

"  That 's  more  than  I  know,  unless  it  is  on  ac 
count  of  their  visitin'  in  Boston.  They  Ve  got 
a  sister  married  there.  Dell 's  been  there  most 
o'  the  time  the  past  two  years.  She  only  comes 
home  for  a  kind  of  vacation  in  the  summer." 

Fosdick  pursed  his  lips  for  a  whistle.  "  Oh 
ho  !  "  he  began,  "  you  mean  to  say,  then  "  — 
But  he  continued,  "  And  the  brother,  is  he 
stuck  up  too  ?  " 

"  There  ain't  no  brother.  Oh,  you  mean  Al- 
rick  Cooley,  I  guess." 

Then  she  gave  a  succinct  history  of  the  broth 
ers  Alrick  and  Albon,  as  heretofore  related. 
Alrick,  Miss  Emeline  said,  'had  left  the  Bow- 
kers  when  he  was  twenty-one,  and  gone  into 
various  occupations,  —  sailing  in  vessels,  work- 


262  McINTYRVS  FALSE  FACE. 

ing  in  the  quarries,  and  so  on  ;  but  continually 
turned  up  there  again.  She  thought  he  was  al 
ways  dangling  after  Idella. 

"  I  thought  it  was  the  other  one  he  seemed 
to  be  fond  of." 

"No,  it  is  Delia.  My !  if  I  was  as  airified 
as  she  sets  up  to  be,  I  would  n't  have  no  such 
poorhouse  trash  round  me." 

So  then  it  was  sophistication  on  her  part, 
and  not  a  phenomenal  rustic  grace  that  had 
charmed  him.  It  was  the  married  sister  in  the 
city,  the  latest  fashion  plates,  the  emanations 
from  shop-windows  and  pavements  of  a  metropo 
lis,  to  the  subtle  influence  of  which  he  had 
yielded. 

That  simple  gingham  frock  had  been  artfully 
planned;  that  belted  jacket,  as  likely  as  not, 
copied  from  Beacon  Street. 


IV. 

These  disclosures,  however,  by  no  means  put 
an  end  to  the  young  quarry -superintendent's 
need  of  distraction.  He  returned  to  the  farm 
house  again  and  again.  For  the  pleasure  of  be 
ing  with  Idella  he  drew  the  farmer  into  long 
narratives,  to  which  when  started  he  did  not 
always  pay  the  closest  attention. 

"  I  had  a  step-mother,  and  was  licked  around 


MfflNTYRE'S  FALSE  FACE.  263 

from  pillar  to  post,  when  I  was  a  boy,"  the 
sun-browned  and  baked  old  farmer,  sitting  in 
his  shirt-sleeves  and  waistcoat  of  faded  check, 
would  say.  "  I  run  away  from  her  when  I  was 
ten,  and  never  see  home  again  till  I  was  twenty- 
one,  and  then  I  'd  been  most  all  over  the  world 
and  was  master  of  a  vessel.  I  s'pose  I  Ve 
caught  more  fish  than  any  other  man  in  the 
United  States.  I  Ve  sailed  sixty  odd  trips  in  a 
Grand  Banker.  I  was  nigh  gettin'  into  the 
slave-trade  once." 

"  How  was  that  ?  "  inquired  Fosdick  absently, 
taking  a  moment  from  his  whisperings  with 
Idella. 

"A  man  originally  from  these  parts  per 
suaded  me.  He  was  one  o'  the  smartest  of  'em 
all.  They  sailed  out  o'  Salem  then,  —  yes,  old 
God-and-morality  Massachusetts,  —  that  's  it, 
that 's  it.  An  old  don  in  Cuby  worth  his  mil 
lions  first  got  him  into  it.  He  made  loads  o' 
money,  but  it  took  most  all  of  it  after  a  while 
to  get  pardoned  so  's  he  could  come  back  here 
and  live.  Sumner  done  it  for  him,  when  Andy 
Johnson  was  president." 

The  farmer  had  sailed  out  of  New  Bedford 
in  a  clipper  ship  half  as  long  as  from  where  he 
sat  to  the  school-house  at  the  cross-roads.  He 
had  been  on  Alexander  Selkirk's  island,  on 
Easter  Island,  and  in  New  Holland,  —  where  the 


264  McINTYRE'S  FALSE  FACE. 

aborigines  can  track  a  deserter  from  a  ship  over 
the  naked  rocks  by  no  more  than  his  scent 
alone. 

Fosdick  could  amplify  a  detail  here  and  there 
from  his  own  reading.  He  may  not  have  added 
much  to  his  general  standing  in  the  house  in 
this  way,  but  he  certainly  did  to  the  growing 
jealousy  of  Alrick,  who  put  in  a  remark,  though 
of  little  pertinence,  now  and  then  to  show  that 
he  was  not  to  be  wholly  crowded  out  of  the 
talk. 

"  Well,  we  ain't  had  time  to  do  much  readin' 
here,"  said  the  mother  of  the  family.  "  We  've 
always  had  to  work.  What  we  know  is  mostly 
what  we  Ve  see.  I  was  'fraid  the  girls  would 
get  in  a  kind  of  idlin',  readin'  way  down  to 
Boston,  but  I  dunno  's  they  have.  Dell,  you 
don't  read  novils  and  such  like  when  you  're 
down  to  Georgiana's  —  do  you  ?  " 

"  Why,  do  you  s'pose  I  would  ?  "  returned 
Idella,  smiling  slyly  at  Fosdick  at  the  same 
time. 

"  Land  !  I  dunno,  I  dunno  ;  there  's  goin's 
on  that 's  beyond  me  in  these  times." 

Alrick  had  a  confidante  in  the  matter  of  his 
regard  for  Idella  Bowker.  It  was  a  certain 
Mrs.  Wixon,  a  sort  of  nurse  and  general  utility 
woman  in  the  neighborhood.  She  read  stray 
copies  of  the  weekly  story-papers  and  kept 


McINTYRE'S  FALSE  FACE.  265 

up  an  amiable  sentimentalism  rare  in  the  prac 
tical  community  of  which  she  made  a  part. 
She  took  almost  the  interest  of  a  school-girl  in 
any  matter  of  the  affections.  She  was  accus 
tomed  to  encourage  the  young  folk  of  the  hum 
bler  sort  to  come  to  her  cottage,  and  they  held 
many  an  evening's  merry-making  there.  But 
Alrick  had  got  in  the  way  of  holding  sober 
conferences  with  her  in  quiet  moments.  In  re 
turn  for  his  confidences  she  always  predicted  to 
him  the  most  hopeful  things.  He  came  now 
in  alarm  to  complain  of  the  aggressive  new  in 
timacy  of  Fosdick. 

"  I  am  as  good  as  him,  any  day,"  he  said, 
indignantly,  concluding  his  story.  She  agreed 
with  him  in  this  ;  assured  him,  indeed,  that  he 
was  much  better.  He  was  to  keep  cool,  and 
be  certain  that  everything  would  come  out  all 
right  in  due  time. 

"  They  're  an  empty,  flighty  set,  these  city 
fellers,"  she  said.  "  They  don't  really  amount 
to  a  row  o'  pins.  I  know  'em  well.  You  '11 
see,  this  one  will  get  tired  and  go  off  pretty 
quick ;  and  besides,  Dell  '11  be  sick  of  him  even 
'fore  that." 

In  the  Bowker  family  "  father  "  was  held  in 
a  wholesome  respect,  and  his  girls  waited,  to 
carry  out  some  of  their  most  cherished  plans, 
till  he  was  well  down  the  road  in  his  wagon,  or 


266  McINTYRVS  FALSE  FACE. 

off  to  sea  in  his  boat.  With  "  mother,"  on  the 
other  hand,  a  certain  reliance  could  be  placed 
in  coaxing  and  wheedling.  One  of  their  proj 
ects,  set  for  an  afternoon  when  their  father 
should  be  securely  out  of  the  way,  was  a  visit 
to  Baker's  Neck.  Now,  at  Baker's  Neck,  in  a 
rude  cabin,  lived  an  old  couple,  "  half -Indian," 
as  it  was  said,  and  Mrs.  Baker,  the  woman,  told 
fortunes  by  means  of  a  tea-cup. 

"  Ask  Em  to  come,  too,"  they  suggested  to 
Fosdick,  but  his  landlord's  daughter,  with  her 
lack  of  imagination,  declined. 

"  There  ain't  no  Indian  about  'em,  as  I  know 
of,"  she  said.  "  They  've  always  lived  that  way, 
cookin'  their  vittles  over  a  few  sticks,  and 
shootin'  and  fishiri'  round,  because  they  'd  rather 
do  that  than  work.  They  ain't  folks  I  should 
much  care  to  associate  with.  The  town  poor 
are  kept  there,  to  their  house,  too,  when  there 
are  any.  They  get  so  much  a  week  for  takin' 
care  of  'em.  They  used  to  have  a  woman  pau 
per  down  there  with  teeth  as  much  's  two  inches 
long.  She  's  dead,  though,  by  this  time.  I  did 
hear,  the  other  day,  that  there  was  talk  of  put- 
tin'  Albon  Cooley  there.  Everybody  on  Little 
Box  Island  is  more  than  tired  of  him  by  this 
time.  Alrick  hain't  ever  wanted  him  round 
where  he  was.  I  don't  know  how  they  '11  man 
age  it." 


McINTYRE'S  FALSE  FACE.  267 

Baker's  Neck  was  best  reached  by  boat,  across 
a  narrow  inlet,  after  passing  over  some  wide 
fields.  The  expedition  was  a  merry  one.  Fos- 
dick  was  considerate  enough  to  keep  Alrick  in 
a  good  humor  by  leaving  Idella  to  him  a  part 
of  the  way.  He  spoke,  upon  rejoining  her,  of 
the  possibility  of  their  finding  the  unfortunate 
Albon  at  the  place. 

"  Oh,  I  do  hope  it  is  n't  so,"  she  replied. 
"  Alrick  is  so  worried  by  him." 

While  they  were  in  the  boat,  a  fog  or  mist 
of  light  consistency,  almost  dry,  and  held  in 
suspense  in  the  sunshine  like  a  silver  powder, 
drifted  up  to  them,  involved  them,  and  as 
quickly  passed  over.  While  enshrouded  in  it, 
they  splashed  and  spattered  gaily  to  all  points 
of  the  compass,  pretending  to  have  lost  their 
way.  On  landing,  Alrick  scoffed  contempt 
uously  at  the  fortune-telling  nonsense,  and,  tak 
ing  a  pail,  strolled  off  to  pick  berries,  while 
they  should  be  occupied  with  it.  The  rest  of 
the  party  were  stationed  by  Delia  on  a  high 
bowlder,  to  wait  while  she  should  prepare  Mrs. 
Baker,  who  was  often  surly,  and  then  followed 
in  response  to  a  signal  waved  up  to  them  by 
her. 

There  were  no  paupers  visible  at  the  mo 
ment,  unless  it  were  three  tow-headed  children, 
who  cowered  against  a  side  of  the  cabin  and 


268  McINTYRE'S  FALSE  FACE. 

drew  the  open  door  back  upon  them  to  partly 
cover  their  rustic  confusion.  It  was  soon 
learned,  however,  that  the  idiot  Albon  was  in 
fact  on  the  island. 

The  preparation  of  Mrs.  Baker  by  Delia  did 
not  seem  to  have  been  very  effectual.  She  took 
little  notice  at  first  of  the  presence  of  the  vis 
itors.  She  barely  inquired  of  one  of  the  girls, 
"  How  's  your  mar,  deary  ?  "  and  went  on  im- 
perturbably  with  her  culinary  operations  at  a 
fire,  which  she  replenished  from  time  to  time 
from  a  pile  of  brushwood  occupying  a  consider 
able  space  of  the  interior.  In  dark  shadow,  by 
a  ladder  mounting  to  a  poor  loft,  sat  an  old 
man,  —  old  Baker,  the  husband,  with  a  crutch 
across  his  lap.  He  made  some  feeble  remark 
about  his  "  rheumatiz,"  and  lapsed  into  silence. 

"  To  think  of  a  real  fortune-teller  surviving 
to  this  time  of  day,  with  a  short,  black  pipe  in 
her  mouth,  a  red  handkerchief  on  her  head,  and 
who  says  '  deary '  !  "  soliloquized  Fosdick. 

Delia  was  obliged  to  renew  her  solicitations 
to  the  old  crone  to  predict  their  destinies. 

"  I  can't,  deary,  I  can't,"  Mrs.  Baker  replied, 
in  a  harsh,  croaking  monotone.  "  It 's  all  lies 
I  tell  ye,  any  way.  'Sides,  I  got  to  git  supper. 
Some  other  time,  gals,  some  other  time." 

Against  this  it  was  urged  that  their  friend 
Fosdick  might  not  then  be  with  them.  With- 


McINTYRE'S  FALSE  FACE.  269 

out  at  all  changing  from  her  indifferent  man 
ner  upon  this,  and  as  if  it  were  only  some  casual 
part  of  the  domestic  duties  in  which  she  was 
engaged,  she  brought  out  a  cup  containing  a 
little  water  and  tea-grounds,  and  handed  it  to 
Fosdick.  She  told  him  to  turn  it  around  and 
spill  the  water  out,  framing  at  the  same  time 
a  wish.  The  fortune  was  to  be  construed  from 
the  appearance  of  the  particles  of  tea  thus  left 
stranded  in  the  cup. 

"  You  '11  get  your  wish  "  (it  was  no  more  im 
portant  than  for  a  kiss  from  the  pretty  Idella). 
"  You  '11  have  a  letter  'fore  long.  You  're 
thinkin'  of  writin'  a  letter.  You  're  goin'  to 
have  some  trouble  with  a  dark  man.  'Pears 
as  though  you  'd  come  through  all  right.  Yes, 
you  '11  come  through  all  right.  You  're  goin' 
to  cross  water  afore  long.  You  want  to  look 
out  sharp  for  that  dark  man.  Here  's  a  light 
woman  and  a  dark  woman,  but  I  can't  exac'ly 
see  now  how  you  stan'  towards  'em.  You  've 
see  some  un  sence  you  come  on  this  island  that 
you  think  a  mighty  good  deal  of." 

"  Why  !  did  n't  we  tell  you  he  was  a  married 
man  ?  "  cried  the  girls.  They  had  agreed  upon 
this  little  fiction,  in  order  to  test  the  old  wom 
an's  occult  art  to  the  utmost. 

"  I  don't  care ;  he 's  see  somebody  on  this 
island  he  loves  more  'n  he  does  himself.  No, 


270  McINTYEE'S  FALSE  FACE. 

he  hain't  married,"  she  pronounced  boldly,  the 
next  moment,  catching  and  interpreting  shrewd 
ly  one  of  the  amused  glances  passing  between 
them. 

The  turn  of  Idella  came  next.  To  her  she 
said,  — 

"  You  '11  get  your  wish,  too.  You  '11  meet  a 
man  with  a  hat-brim  about  a  foot  wide.  Your 
husband  is  going  to  be  worth  fifty  thousand 
dollars  in  gold.  He  '11  take  you  away  to  the 
city.  It 's  a  big  city,  too.  There  't  is,  plain  's 
can  be,"  and  she  pointed  with  a  bony  and 
leathern  forefinger  at  a  considerable  quantity  of 
the  tea  grounds  collected  in  a  mass. 

To  the  other  girls  she  prophesied  lovers, 
handsome  husbands,  money  and  happiness  in 
unstinted  supply.  Marietta  was  to  have  a 
lawyer  ;  Caroline  a  doctor.  Each  of  these  was 
to  be  worth  one  hundred  thousand  in  gold. 

"  Oh,  Mrs.  Baker,"  protested  Delia,  "  it 's 
too  mean  of  you  to  give  them  more  money  than 
me." 

"  I  can't  help  it,  child,  can  I,  if  the  cup  reads 
that  way  ?  —  But  —  'pears  as  though,  lookin' 
at  yours  ag'in,  there  was  suthin'  else  comin'  to 
you  to  make  it  up,  by  will  or  some  such  way." 

And  thus  the  good-natured  sorceress  deftly 
equalized  the  fates. 

The  company  romped  back,  in  the  same  gay 


McINTYRE'S  FALSE  FACE.  271 

spirits,  to  the  shore,  where  Alrick  was  await 
ing  them  at  the  boat.  Fosdick  and  Idella  had 
trimmed  each  other's  large  straw  hats  with 
flowers  and  a  small  short-stemmed  cranberry 
growing  in  the  dry  moss  on  the  tops  of  the 
bowlders.  Idella,  in  a  gay  bravado,  set  the 
young  man's  a  moment  on  her  own  head. 

"  You  know  what  the  forfeit  is,"  he  said,  as 
she  gave  it  back.  He  made  a  gentlemanly  feint 
of  claiming  the  traditional  privilege,  which  she 
as  easily  evaded. 

"You  shan't  kiss  my  sister,"  said  Caroline, 
pretending  to  bristle  a  little  at  sight  of  it. 

"  I  didn't,"  he  said,  with  a  pretended  air  of 
injury. 

"  She  would  n't  let  me,"  he  added  the  next 
moment,  and  they  all  laughed  at  this  defense. 

As  they  two  loitered  behind,  the  others  got 
before  them  into  the  boat,  and  pretended  to 
row  away  and  abandon  them  there.  But  they 
sat  comfortably  down  upon  the  shore  to  wait. 

"  Are  you  anything  of  a  phrenologist  ? " 
Idella  asked.  "Can  you  tell  people's  charac 
ters  that  way  ?" 

She  bared  her  pretty  head  saucily  to  the 
breeze,  laden  with  the  grateful  odors  of  sum 
mer  and  the  sea. 

"Let  me  try,"  returned  Fosdick. 

He  touched  her  hair  lightly  with  a  finger  or 
two. 


272  McINTYRE'S  FALSE  FACE. 

"This,  now,  I  should  say,"  imitating  the 
professional  manner,  "  was  a  person  who  had  a 
married  sister  in  Boston,  a  person  who  visited 
there  a  great  part  of  the  year  "  — 

"  Stuff  and  nonsense  !  "  she  interrupted, 
twisting  suddenly  away  from  him.  "  You  knew 
that.  Who  told  you  ?  How  did  you  find  out  ?  " 

They  began  to  talk  about  Boston.  She  gave 
him,  in  a  diffident  way,  an  address  there,  if  he 
should  ever  come  and  should  care  to  call  upon 
her. 

She  almost  seemed  to  have  something  else 
on  her  mind,  which  she  was  going  to  speak  out, 
but  she  did  not. 

She  hated  the  island,  she  went  on  to  tell  him, 
and  thought  the  folks  on  it  horrid.  She  hated 
housekeeping,  and  she  hated  the  country.  She 
proved  not  to  know  even  so  much  of  the  flowers 
and  shrubs  about  them  as  he.  She  could  not 
tell  hackmatack  from  cedar,  nor  wheat  from 
oats,  classing  all  the  cereals  alike  under  the 
head  of  "grain,"  and  boasted,  instead  of  regret 
ting,  that  she  could  not  spin,  like  her  sisters. 
Perhaps  she  fancied  that  she  commended  her 
self  to  the  favor  of  the  young  man  in  assuming 
an  interest  only  in  more  sophisticated  and  luxu 
rious  things  than  those  to  which  she  had  been 
used. 

If  so,  it  was  a  mistake  on  her  part.     Fosdick 


McINTYRVS  FALSE  FACE.  273 

was  desirous  to  look  at  her  solely  from  a  bu 
colic  point  of  view.  He  wanted  to  sentimen 
talize  her  as  a  nymph  of  the  woods  and  pas 
tures.  Such  a  one  in  his  fancy  might  even 
become  for  him  (were  it  perfectly  certain  and 
established  that  he  was  not  cut  out  by  destiny 
for  a  career  of  dog-carts  and  four-in-hands)  the 
head  of  a  very  superior  order  of  modest  rural 
establishment. 

"  Oh,  you  ought  to  like  housekeeping  and  the 
country,  you  know,"  he  said,  reproving  her. 

He  ventured  to  reprimand  her  again  for  walk 
ing  in  the  thinnest  of  coquettish  slippers,  dis 
closed  by  the  accident  of  their  getting  entangled 
in  a  piece  of  marshy  ground.  She  returned  him 
but  defiant  answers,  however,  when  he  took  the 
tone  of  patronage. 

But  for  the  delay  on  the  shore,  as  described, 
the  excursion  would  have  passed  without  an 
apparent  flaw.  But  the  delay  proved  to  have 
momentous  consequences.  While  the  boat  was 
returning  for  the  pair,  and  was  still  a  few  rods 
distant,  the  ungainly  figure  of  the  idiot  Albon 
Cooley  shambled  hastily  down  the  hill  and 
came  close  to  them.  He  peered  into  their 
faces,  seemed  to  find  a  pleasure  in  the  sight 
of  Idella,  and  tried  to  lay  hold  of  her.  She 
shrank  away  from  him  in  intense  disgust.  Fos- 
dick  threw  himself  between  them,  and  enabled 

18 


274  McINTYRE'S  FALSE  FACE. 

her  to  embark,  but  was  himself  detained  with 
an  elfish  pertinacity  by  the  idiot. 

"  Alrick,  you  '11  have  to  get  him  away,"  ap 
pealed  Marietta  to  the  young  farm-hand,  who 
sat  in  the  boat,  an  agonized  witness  of  this 
scene,  so  humiliating  to  himself.  Had  he  sus 
pected  the  presence  of  Albon  on  the  island,  he 
reflected,  untold  wealth  would  not  have  induced 
him  to  come.  How  could  he  hold  up  his  head 
again  before  the  city  chap,  having  been  thus 
shamed. 

He  leaped  from  the  boat,  with  a  black  and 
savage  face.  He  strode  towards  his  brother, 
freed  Fosdick  from  his  grasp  with  a  wrench, 
and,  when  Albon  would  have  fastened  upon 
him  in  turn,  thrust  him  off  with  such  a  brutal 
violence  that  he  fell  heavily  among  the  rocks. 
A  sympathizer  with  the  fool  and  his  protector 
at  other  times,  he  could  now  have  blasted  his 
hateful  presence  from  the  face  of  the  earth. 

Albon  gathered  himself  up,  and  with  a  feeble, 
uncertain  aim,  hurled  missiles  after  the  retreat 
ing  boat.  During  all  of  the  homeward  journey, 
though  the  others  tried  in  a  friendly  way  to 
draw  him  out,  hardly  a  monosyllable  escaped 
from  Alrick's  parched  and  contracted  lips. 


McINTYRE'S  FALSE  FACE.  275 


V. 

Mrs.  Bowker  regarded  this  "  gallivanting 
'round,"  as  she  called  it,  as  a  useless  waste  of 
time.  She  was  not  deterred,  one  day,  when 
Fosdick  came,  upon  appointment,  to  join  a 
rowing  party,  by  any  considerations  of  the 
awkwardness  of  the  thing,  from  saying  so. 

The  daughters,  assembled  in  the  sitting-room 
with  their  polished  visitor,  and  desirous  to 
give  him  only  the  best  impression,  exchanged 
glances  and  frowns  of  dismay  at  the  counter 
mand,  and  then  entered  upon  expostulations, 
but  all  without  avail. 

"  Dell,  you  ain't  a-goin'  out  on  the  water 
again !  "  the  shrill  voice  of  Mrs.  Bowker  ex 
claimed  from  the  kitchen.  "  There  's  the  fog 
comin'  up  so  thick  now  you  can't  see  High 
Head.  You  '11  catch  your  deaths.  Gracious 
sakes !  there  's  more  work  in  this  house ! 
Who 's  goin'  to  fetch  the  cows,  I  'd  like  to 
know  ?  Who  's  goin'  to  do  the  milkin'  ?  Al- 
rick,  he  's  away,  gone  to  see  'bout  gittin'  Mose- 
ley's  mowin'  -  machine,  —  and  your  pa,  he  's 
away.  Nett,  you  come  along  and  wash  up 
these  dishes  that 's  been  stannin'  ever  sence 
mornin.'  Dell,  you  've  got  to  git  the  cows,  — 
or  Ca'line,  —  one.  Land  sakes  !  " 


276  McINTYRE'S  FALSE  FACE. 

"  I  '11  get  the  cows,"  volunteered  Fosdick, 
and  restored  the  spirits  of  the  embarrassed  cir 
cle  by  his  charming  way  of  taking  it. 

"  You  don't  know  where  to  find  them.  But 
you  can  come  with  Cad  and  me,  if  you  want 
to,"  said  Idella. 

It  was  a  long  stretch  that  they  made,  up  and 
down  over  the  rocky  pastures.  Caroline  took 
the  fences  alone,  disdaining  aid.  Idella  paused 
in  a  dainty  assumed  perplexity  on  the  top,  and 
permitted  his  assistance  to  be  extended  to  her. 

It  was  a  bond  of  intimacy  between  them,  in 
the  fancy  of  Fosdick,  that  her  mother  had 
scolded  them  together.  A  woman  in  a  faded 
delaine  wrapper,  who  said  "  Californy "  and 
"  settin'-room,"  had  scolded  him,  Fosdick  the 
ex-club  man. 

They  came  to  a  cool  spring,  running  into  an 
old  moss-grown  tub,  where  Idella  gave  him  a 
drink  from  a  birch-bark  dipper,  hid  in  a  cleft 
in  the  rocks.  Cad  stampeded  the  cows,  which 
broke  through  the  bushes  on  a  run,  whisked 
their  tails  and  threw  out  their  legs  in  their 
sideway,  awkward  fashion.  The  party  thought 
they  saw  a  man  lurking  mysteriously  in  the 
edge  of  the  woods.  They  got  caught  in  a  piece 
of  soft  ground  (this  was  the  time  of  the  slipper 
episode  above  mentioned)  ;  and  these  were  the 
whole  of  their  petty  adventures. 


McINTYRE'S  FALSE  FACE.  277 

Three  days  thereafter,  Fosdick  came  -  to  say 
good-by.  Old  Mrs.  Baker's  prediction,  won 
derfully  enough,  was  coming  true.  He  had  re 
ceived  a  letter.  It  recalled  him  from  the  isl 
and,  and  he  must  leave  by  the  City  of  Camden 
the  next  morning.  He  stayed  to  tea  with  the 
Bowkers.  They  gave  him,  among  other  viands, 
a  certain  strip  taken  from  along  the  back  of  one 
of  the  sun-dried  salt-fish  of  their  shore.  This 
they  instructed  him  was  "  the  dream-line,"  and 
whoever  ate  of  it  was  likely  to  be  visited  at 
night  by  a  vision  of  his  future  wife  or  husband, 
who  would  offer  a  glass  of  water  to  quench  the 
thirst  it  occasioned.  By  a  not  unnatural  asso 
ciation  of  ideas,  he  dreamed  that  night  of  Idella. 
He  received  again  from  her  hand  a  draught  of 
cool  water  in  the  birch-bark  dipper  of  the 
spring. 

It  was  a  lovely,  mild  summer  night,  with  light 
milky  clouds  drifting  across  a  nearly  full  moon, 
when  he  finally  took  his  departure.  His  new 
found  friends  insisted  upon  escorting  him  a  part 
of  the  way.  They  went  arm  in  arm  at  first,  all 
sinning,  but  by  degrees  he  fell  to  the  rear  with 
Idella. 

"  It  was  quite  unprincipled  of  you  to  refuse 
to  pay  the  forfeit  that  day,  for  wearing  my 
hat,"  he  said  to  her.  "  Do  you  not  think  so  ?  " 

"  No,  I  do  not  think  so." 


278  McINTYRVS  FALSE  FACE. 

"  It  is  a  custom  of  the  country,  and  I  should 
not  think  you  would  want  to  transgress  it.  It 
probably  came  over  in  the  Mayflower,  and  had 
its  origin  in  the  most  ancient  times." 

"It  came  over  in  the  City  of  Camden,  I 
guess,"  she  rejoined  smartly. 

"  You  are  very  hard-hearted,"  he  argued,  in 
a  pleading  tone. 

"It  would  n't  do  you  any  good,"  she  said  in 
reply. 

There  was  certainly  a  trace  of  relenting  in 
this. 

"  Oh  yes,  it  would,  dear.  I  am  going  away. 
It  is  the  last  time  —  I  should  carry  away  such 
a  sweet  remembrance  of  you." 

He  bent  down,  and  without  more  ado  passed 
an  arm  lightly  around  her  waist.  For  a  brief 
instant  she  suffered  her  head  to  rest  against  his 
strong  shoulder  and  her  charming  lips  to  meet 
his,  offering  but  the  faintest  show  of  resistance 
demanded  as  a  concession  to  self-respect. 

They  parted  at  last  and  he  went  on  alone. 

He  halted  in  the  midst  of  the  moonlit  wood, 
where  heavy  black  shadows  were  blotted  in 
strong  relief  down  upon  the  road,  and  pale 
ghostly  vistas  vanished  on  either  hand.  He 
asked  himself  abruptly :  — 

"  What  do  I  mean  by  it,  now  that  it  is  all 
over?" 


McINTYRVS  FALSE  FACE.  279 

He  made  no  answer  to  his  own  question,  but 
moved  on  in  a  deeply  pensive  mood.  He  spoke 
again  presently,  saying,  — 

"  Well,  she  has  amused  herself,  too,  I  sup 
pose.  She  does  not  have  a  person  of  my  sort 
to  play  off  all  her  little  points  upon  every  day." 

The  recollection  of  these  little  points  in  de 
tail  and  in  mass  overwhelmed  him,  and  he 
sighed  :  — 

"Ah,  it  is  lucky  I  am  getting  away  from 
here  just  as  I  am." 

But  in  the  morning  whom  should  he  see  at 
the  boat,  again,  but  Idella.  She  had  accepted 
the  mail-boy's  invitation  to-day,  and  aroused  in 
his  breast  delusive  hopes  that  his  honest  merits 
were  going  at  last  to  be  recognized,  only  to  se 
cure  a  final  leave-taking  with  a  more  favored 
lover.  She  made 'the  pretext  of  having  brought 
Fosdick  a  little  package  of  unimportant  trifles 
that  he  had  left  at  the  farm-house.  Alas  for 
the  poor  mail-boy!  Another  coquettish  cos 
tume,  too,  to-day,  a  new  one  of  dark  blue. 

What  with  the  effect  of  this  and  his  recollec 
tions  of  the  evening  and  night  before,  Fosdick 
made  her  much  warmer  speeches  of  farewell 
than  he  had  intended  or  than  he  could  approve 
to  his  own  conscience. 

The  plank  was  about  to  be  drawn  on  board. 

"  Ninety  -  seven   Mackintosh   Street,    then," 


280  McINTYRVS  FALSE  FACE. 

said  the  young  man,  as  repeating  reassuringly 
the  address  she  had  given  him  for  Boston. 

"Ninety-six,"  amended  the  girl.  "If  you 
don't  find  me  at  home,  —  you  always  can  at 
Gay  &  Talbot's  store.  I  'tend  there." 

This  is  what  she  had  long  had  on  her  mind 
to  tell  him. 

There  was  no  time  for  more.  The  ex-quarry- 
superintendent  sailed  away.  She  'tended  there  ? 
he  reflected.  She  came  very  well  indeed  by 
her  stylish  aspect  then,  if  she  were  one  of  the 
young  women  behind  Gay  &  Talbot's  coun 
ters.  It  was  a  choice  and  delicate  variety  of 
goods  they  handled  at  the  emporium  named. 
To  move  about  among  them  so  freely  must  be 
almost  as  good  as  owning  them  one's  self.  Still, 
he  liked  far  better  his  idea  of  her  as  the  girl  of 
the  woods  and  waters  and  the  unpainted  old 
farm-house.  Smoking  his  cigar  on  the  upper 
deck  of  the  steamer,  as  she  voyaged  among  the 
fair  blue  islands  —  made,  now  and  again,  fairer, 
bluer,  and  more  mystic  by  fleeting  effects  of 
mirage  —  he  felt  extremely  remorseful  and  un 
comfortable.  He  thought  more  positively  than 
ever  how  lucky  it  was  to  be  getting  away  from 
there,  having  gone  no  further. 

No  sooner  had  he  gone,  than  Alrick  Cooley, 
seizing  the  most  unpropitious  moment  possible 
to  speak  his  mind,  said  to  Idella :  — 


McINTYR&S  FALSE  FACE.  281 

"  I  want  you  to  marry  me,  Dell.  You  've 
know'd  I  did  all  along." 

"  I  have  n't  known  anything  of  the  kind." 

"  Well,  then  you  know  it  now." 

"  I  don't  want  to  know  anything  about  it." 

"  That  city  feller 's  turned  your  head.  He  '11 
make  another  Jen  Belden  of  you,  ef  you  take 
up  with  him  ;  that 's  what  he  '11  do." 

Jenny  Belden,  it  seemed,  was  a  girl  of  the 
island  who  had  been  betrayed  by  a  city  man, 
under  particularly  distressing  circumstances. 

"Alrick  Cooley,  I  won't  listen  to  no  such 
talk  !  "  and  she  started  off  in  high  dudgeon. 

"  I  did  n't  mean  nothin',  Dell,"  he  said,  tak 
ing  a  humbler  tone,  upon  which  the  girl  turned 
back.  u  I  've  got  a  little  pile  o'  money  saved 
up,  quite  considerable  for  these  parts,  and  I  kin 
make  more.  Your  father  he  's  gittin'  old,  and 
wants  summun  round  he  kin  depend  on.  You 
understan'  the  farmin'  business,  too.  We  should 
callate  to  take  the  farm  and  keep  it  right  along, 
when  the  old  folks  was  done  with  it." 

He  paused,  but  Idella  did  not  speak. 

"  That  ain't  no  kind  of  livin'  for  girls,  in 
them  city  stores,"  he  continued.  "  I  've  heard 
it  from  them  as  knows." 

Another  pause,  still  without  response  from 
her.  She  was  listening  in  unmistakable  dis 
dain  ;  she  would  not  even  condescend  to  argu 
ment. 


282  McINTYRVS  FALSE  FACE, 

"  I  suppose  Albon  's  got  somethin'  to  do  with 
it,"  said  Alrick,  reproachfully,  "  but  I  could  n't 
help  that,  could  I  ?  Anybody  might  have  had 
a  brother  like  that." 

"  He  has  n't  got  nothing  to  do  with  it." 

"  Your  father  was  a  poor  boy  himself.  He 
come  up  from  nothin'  at  all,  I  've  often  heerd 
him  say  so." 

"  Well,  /  did  n't,  then.  And  I  don't  calcu 
late  to  go  down  to  it,  either,  what 's  more." 

"  Look  out  you  don't !  "  cried  Alrick  sav 
agely,  picking  up  a  scythe  he  had  had  in  his 
hands  and  walking  off. 

But  he  put  down  his  scythe  at  the  barn,  in 
stead  of  going  to  the  fields  with  it,  and  resigned 
his  place.  He  took  service  first  in  the  mackerel 
fleet  just  off  shore,  and  later  was  heard  of  in 
the  coasters,  and  then  as  making  the  danger 
ous  winter  fishing  voyages  from  Gloucester  to 
George's  Banks.  His  confidante,  Mrs.  Wixon, 
watched  over  his  poor  interests  as  best  she 
could  during  his  absence.  Towards  spring  she 
felt  moved  to  address  him  a  letter  of  gossip 
from  the  island,  as  follows  :  — 

FKEND  ALRICK,  —  Dallas  Munson's  Engaig- 
ment  is  Broke  off.  Eudora  heerd  something 
about  him  after  they  was  publishd  and  the 
Wedding  all  reddy.  He  was  so  set  in  his  Way 


McINTYRVS  FALSE  FACE.  283 

he  don't  clear  up  nothing,  sayin  he  guess  he 
could  stan  it  if  she  can.  Otis  Watson's  wife 
carrid  off  the  Prize  at  spinning-match  down  to 
Judson's  Cove  last  week.  Nobody  sepposed  she 
was  so  Spry.  Same  week  the  folks  was  up  to 
our  House  one  nite,  high  goins  on.  Wisht  you 
had  been  Along.  Emeline  Benson  was  down 
to  Boston  and  she  stop  in  to  see  Idella  Bowker 
at  her  store,  thinkin  she  would.  Whoshd  she 
meet  comin  out  but  that  city  felow,  the  same 
one,  F.  Fosdick.  Idella  she  blusht  Up  and 
denied  it.  Likely  he  goes  a  Great  eel.  So  if 
I  was  you  Id  give  it  up  and  not  waste  enny 
more  time  on  Idella  Bowker.  There  Is  plenty 
more  jesst  as  good  and  mighty  site  better. 
Wether  hear  ben  cold.  So  no  more  at  Presant 
from  your  true  Frend, 

CATHEEIN  A.  WIXON. 

To  which,  in  course  of  time,  Alrick  replied : 

DEER  FKEND  MISSES  WIXON,  —  Its  no  Use 
I  kant  help  Thinkin  of  Her  thow  other  Gurls 
may  bee  just  as  good  as  you  Say.  I  pass  by  her 
stor.  Bein  to  Boston  one  day  but  dont  go  In 
not  bein  stile  enough  to  her  taist  (So  I  seppose) 
I  hav  ben  wreck  down  Block  Island  way  sense 
I  seen  you.  We  left  Swamscot  wind  bein  fresh 
at  the  time  S.  E.  bein  thick  and  Foggy.  Run 


284  McINTYEE'S  FALSE  FACE. 

till  the  skipper  judge  himself  as  up  with  the 
Island,  header  her  off  S.  E.  with  his  jib  Haul  to 
the  Winderd,  made  Breakers  ahed,  tried  her  for 
stays  she  would  not  come  roun.  went  ashore 
stern  forrard,  a  total  Lost.  Cargo  bein  Lime 
took  fire  but  no  lifes  lost.  If  one  Was,  you  no 
who,  some  folks  woodnfc  a  cared  much.  So  no 
more  at  Presant  from  your  tru  frend, 

ALKICK  COOLEY. 


VI. 

Having  escaped  his  entanglement,  before,  as 
it  seemed,  any  serious  harm  was  done,  Mr. 
Fosdick,  now  under  guidance  of  what  he  was 
pleased  to  call  his  better  judgment,  was  dis 
posed  to  guard  himself  carefully  against  any 
renewal  of  it.  This  became  the  easier  every 
day,  as  new  impressions  and  interests,  includ 
ing  new  sentimental  attachments,  obliterated 
the  old,  in  a  memory  not  too  keenly  retentive 
of  such  things.  He  advanced  to  higher  grades 
in  the  service  of  his  building  firm,  and  began 
to  take  a  more  favorable  view  of  his  prospects 
in  life.  Idella  was  as  good  as  forgotten.  Once 
only,  happening  to  be  in  Boston,  with  an  idle 
hour  on  his  hands,  he  half  yielded  to  a  new 
enticement  in  her  direction. 

Standing  on  the  steps  of  his  hotel,  a  walking 


McINTYRVS  FALSE  FACE.  285 

advertisement  came  by  and  thrust  into  his  hand 
a  bill  describing  the  bargains  offered  at  present 
at  Gay  &  Talbot's.  Gay  &  Talbot  were  sell 
ing  off  dress  patterns,  balbriggan  and  lisle 
thread  hosiery,  and  ten  thousand  dozen  em 
broidered  handkerchiefs,  for  the  next  twenty 
days,  at  an  astonishing  sacrifice.  It  recalled 
Idella  Bowker  vividly  to  mind.  Why  might 
he  not  step  in  and  have  a  word  with  her  across 
the  counter?  The  store  was  not  far  distant. 
He  stepped  down  the  street  and  entered  it. 
But  no  sooner  was  he  fairly  in  the  midst  of  its 
heavy,  patchouli-scented  atmosphere  and  clus 
tering  crowds  than  a  strong  sense  of  the  folly 
of  what  he  had  been  going  to  do  overcame  him, 
and  he  turned  on  his  heel  and  departed.  It 
was  this  visit,  and  this  alone,  in  which  he  was 
seen  by  Emeline  Benson,  and  which  served  as 
the  basis  of  her  reports  in  the  island,  and  the 
letter  of  Mrs.  Wixon  to  Alrick  Cooley. 

In  the  following  summer  Fosdick  was  sent 
once  more  for  a  short  time  to  the  quarry  on 
Little  Box  Island.  It  was  now  out  of  its  legal 
difficulties,  and  was  again  being  worked.  It 
was  early  in  the  summer,  and  he  hoped  to  de 
part  before  Idella  should  have  arrived  for  her 
vacation.  Her  sisters  were  absent  as  well  as 
herself. 

How  strangely  uninteresting  was  the  house, 


286  McINTYRE'S  FALSE  FACE. 

with  its  remaining  inmates  now !  He  went 
alone  to  Baker's  Neck,  and  saw  Albon  there, 
whittling  a  stick.  He  was  told  by  Mrs.  Baker 
another  fortune,  of  a  light  lady  and  a  dark  lady 
and  a  letter  and  a  journey,  all  quite  different 
from  the  first.  He  talked  with  the  "  drawist," 
who  still  papered  his  store  with  the  brown  paper 
yachts,  and  he  went  out  to  the  Reach  to  fish  in 
his  dory  as  before. 

At  this  time  Alrick  Cooley  had  returned  by 
degrees  towards  the  scene  of  his  discomfiture, 
and  was  a  part  of  the  crew  of  the  coaster  Eleanor 
Jane,  plying  with  miscellaneous  freight  among 
several  considerable  towns  on  the  main,  and  fre 
quently  passed  through  the  channels  of  Great 
Box  Island. 

On  a  certain  day,  when  the  Eleanor  Jane 
came  down  the  Reach  before  a  fresh  breeze,  Al 
rick  was  at  the  wheel,  brooding  moodily  over 
the  place  whose  every  stock  and  stone  he  knew 
so  well,  and  lost  a  couple  of  points  in  his  steer 
ing.  The  variation  would  bring  the  vessel  un 
pleasantly  close  to  a  dory,  containing  a  man, 
which  lay  off  Barlow's  Point.  Alrick  would 
have  brought  down  his  helm  to  remedy  the 
error,  but  suddenly  recognizing  the  inmate  of 
the  boat,  with  a  fierce  exclamation,  put  it  up 
instead. 

The  man  in  the  boat  got  up  his  anchor  in  a 


McINTYR&S  FALSE  FACE.  287 

panic,  lost  one  of  his  oars,  and  attempted  to 
paddle  out  of  danger  with  the  other.  The  brig 
followed  all  his  weak  evasions,  and  bore  down 
upon  him  with  an  unerring  aim.  The  shadow 
of  the  great  black  hull  was  already  over  him. 
The  helmsman  gloated  in  anticipation  of  his 
longed-for  vengeance.  The  skiff  would  be 
cracked  like  an  egg-shell,  and  pass  along  under 
the  keel  with  a  slight  scratching  sound,  and 
that  would  be  all. 

By  what  chance  was  it  that  the  skipper  came 
on  deck  at  this  moment,  rubbing  his  eyes  from 
a  nap  ?  He  had  scarcely  time  even  to  rip  out 
a  sounding  oath.  He  rushed  upon  his  steers 
man,  hurled  him  aside,  and  dragged  the  wheel 
with  a  great  wrench  to  starboard. 

The  brig  fell  off  with  a  sudden  yaw.  The 
small  boat  danced  frightfully  in  its  wash  for  an 
instant,  and  was  safe.  The  skipper  turned  then 
upon  his  seaman,  who  hid  his  attempted  crime 
under  an  affectation  of  stupidity,  and  cursed 
him,  as  the  saying  is,  up  hill  and  down  dale. 

This  account  of  the  affair  was  given  by  Al- 
rick  himself  to  Mrs.  Wixon.  Sometimes,  he 
told  her,  he  awoke  nights  trembling  with  hor 
ror  at  the  thought  of  what  he  had  so  nearly 
done.  Again,  he  blamed  himself  bitterly  for 
his  failure  to  rid  the  world  of  his  hated  rival. 
This  was  a  degree  in  sentimentalism  far  beyond 


288  McINTYRE'S  FALSE  FACE. 

the  simple  mind  of  Mrs.  Wixon.  She  was  se 
cretly  alarmed  at  the  wild  and  moody  temper 
of  her  confidant,  and  much  inclined  to  curtail 
their  friendship  thereafter,  a  desire  in  which 
she  was  soon  effectually  aided  by  circumstances. 

The  Great  Box  Island  quarry  had  delivered 
to  the  main  a  quantity  of  building  stone,  which 
for  some  reason  was  rejected.  Fosdick  went 
thither  to  reclaim  it,  found  another  purchaser 
for  it  in  a  city  to  the  eastward,  and  shipped  it 
on  board  the  Eleanor  Jane,  which  lay  in  port 
open  to  engagement.  As  the  prevailing  winds 
promised  a  short  run,  he  also  thought  good  to 
take  passage  in  her  himself. 

A  skipper,  three  men,  and  a  boy  composed 
the  crew  of  the  Eleanor  Jane.  Fosdick  was 
not  a  little  surprised  to  find  Alrick  forming  a 
part  of  it.  He  spoke  to  him  pleasantly,  but 
his  advances  were  rebuffed  with  short  and  surly 
answers. 

There  was  not  much  "heft,"  the  skipper 
said,  to  the  breeze.  Instead  of  passing  Great 
Box  in  the  night,  they  were  only  abreast  of  it 
—  some  ten  miles  off  —  towards  noon  of  a  fol 
lowing  day.  Fosdick  was  discoursing  with  the 
captain,  and  told  him  of  his  recent  narrow  es 
cape  from  being  run  down  in  a  dory  while  fish 
ing. 

"Why,  was  you  the  one?"  cried  the  cap- 


McINTYRVS  FALSE  FACE.  289 

tain.  "  This  was  the  vessel.  If  I  had  n't  a 
grabbed  the  wheel,  you  would  n't  a  been  no  live 
man  now.  Cooley  !  "  he  continued,  shouting  in 
a  facetious  tone  to  Alrick,  who  stood  at  the 
rail,  splicing  ropes,  "  here  's  the  party  you  nigh 
run  down  in  Great  Box  Reach.  He  's  a  comin' 
there  to  pitch  you  overboard  to  pay  for  it." 

"  I  wish  I  had  sent  him  to  hell,"  returned 
Alrick,  scowling  darkly. 

There  was  no  responsive  humor  in  his  mood, 
and  he  did  not  change  his  position. 

"  I  won't  have  no  such  talk  out  of  you,"  cried 
the  skipper  in  a  rage. 

"  You  '11  have  just  what  talk  you  kin  git." 

The  captain  started  towards  him,  catching 
up  a  belaying-pin  as  he  went.  Fosdick  threw 
himself  between  them.  The  intense  bitterness 
of  this  humble  rival  towards  him,  the  dark 
sense  of  injury  under  which  he  must  have  la 
bored  to  make  it  so  abiding,  flashed  upon  him 
as  in  a  sudden  illumination.  With  it  came  a 
sense  of  the  keenest  regret  for  the  flippant  and 
purposeless  conduct  which  could  have  aroused 
such  a  feeling,  which  could  have  had  such  mo 
mentous  consequences  in  the  life  of  another. 

"  Let  it  go  this  time,"  he  appealed  good- 
humoredly  to  the  captain.  "  It  was  an  accident, 
and  he  is  sore  on  the  subject.  It 's  all  right, 
/have  no  fault  to  find." 

19 


290  McINTYRE'S  FALSE  FACE, 

"  Oh,  you  don't  find  no  fault !  you  don't ! 
Much  obliged  !  D — n  you  !  "  the  morose  sailor 
returned,  with  an  infuriated  shriek.  Seizing  a 
heavy  iron  bar,  which  offered  a  weapon  to  his 
hand,  he  aimed  a  frenzied  blow  at  Fosdick,  and 
knocked  him  bloody  and  senseless  to  the  deck. 

He  paralyzed  with  it  next  the  hand  of  the 
captain,  who  had  drawn  a  revolver  against  him, 
and  possessed  himself  of  this  also. 

The  remainder  of  the  crew  would  have  seized 
him,  but  his  prowess  in  the  struggle  was  pro 
digious.  He  shot  one  in  the  thigh  and  drove 
the  other  two  before  him  in  terror  to  the  rig 
ging,  where  he  bound  them  fast. 

The  captain  escaped  to  his  cabin.  Besieged 
there,  he  fired  through  the  door  a  shot  from  a 
single-barreled  pistol,  which  still  remained  to 
him.  It  took  effect,  though  this  did  not  at 
once  appear. 

Alrick,  in  a  kind  of  untamable  Berserker 
rage,  was  complete  master  of  the  vessel.  He 
fired  a  shot  into  Fosdick  to  finish  him,  and 
spurned  the  prostrate  body  of  his  enemy  with 
his  foot.  Finally,  with  an  axe  he  smashed  the 
steering  gear,  cut  the  sails  and  every  important 
hoist-rope,  staved  in  all  the  boats  but  one,  and, 
taking  that,  escaped  to  land.  The  men  who  had 
been  tied  worked  themselves  free  of  their  bonds 
and  came  down  to  release  the  captain,  attend 


McINTYRE'S  FALSE  FACE.  291 

to  the  wounded  and  dying,  and  work  their  craft 
into  port  as  best  they  could  in  its  cruelly  dis 
abled  condition. 

VII. 

The  assassin  reached  the  land  of  Great  Box 
Island,  near  his  old  home,  towards  evening. 
He  set  his  boat  adrift,  threw  his  revolver  into 
the  bushes,  climbed  the  cliffs,  and  passed  the 
night  in  the  woods.  A  cold,  dismal  fog  drove 
in  upon  the  shore.  All  night  long,  even  in  his 
fitful  slumbers,  he  heard  the  blowing-buoy,  in 
the  surf  off  the  Cup  and  Saucer  reef,  seeming 
to  call,  as  was  its  way,  "  Oh!  Wo!  Wo!  "  The 
flash-light  of  the  lighthouse  on  the  hill  threw 
its  broad  rays,  projected  upon  the  fog,  slowly 
round  and  round  in  a  circle,  like  a  great  eye  in 
exorably  searching  for  the  wretched  criminal 
cowering  in  the  dark  woods  below. 

At  break  of  day,  when  Mrs.  Bowker  opened 
the  farm-house  door,  this  same  figure  presented 
itself  before  her,  in  most  pitiable  plight.  To 
account  for  it,  he  said  that  he  had  been  driven 
ashore,  and  his  bruises  and  tatters  were  the  re 
sult  of  falls  among  the  rocks.  He  dared  say 
nothing  of  a  shot-wound  in  his  side,  inflicted  by 
the  captain's  pistol,  from  which  the  warm  blood 
was  constantly  trickling  down.  He  wanted 
only  warmth,  food,  and  rest  for  the  day,  he 


292  McINTYRE'S  FALSE  FACE. 

said,  till  he  could  get  back  by  some  fishing-boat 
to  the  main. 

Idella  had  come  home.  When  she  came 
down  to  breakfast,  this  day,  with  her  hair,  not 
too  carefully  done,  but  comely  still,  even  in  dis 
array,  the  disabled  Alrick  was  lying  on  an  im 
promptu  couch,  formed  of  three  chairs,  by  the 
kitchen  fire. 

"  Goin'  to  shake  hands,  ain't  ye,  Dell  ?  "  he 
said,  putting  out  one  of  his  own. 

She  had  meant  to  do  this,  and  had  ap 
proached  him  for  the  purpose,  but  an  unac 
countable  repugnance  and  terror  seized  her. 
She  diverted  her  course  to  the  pantry,  and  care 
fully  kept  away  from  the  kitchen  for  the  rest 
of  the  day. 

The  farmer  towards  evening  brought  word 
that  a  chance  offered  to  go  to  the  mainland, 
which  the  guest  accepted. 

"  Like  enough  you  could  come  back  ag'in  and 
give  us  a  lift  with  the  hay  in'  a  spell,  could  n't 
ye,  Alrick,  'fore  ye  go  off  on  another  trip  any 
wheres  ?  "  asked  farmer  Bowker. 

"  Like  enough,"  returned  the  hapless  man. 

He  groaned  aloud,  overcome  by  the  pain  of 
his  wounds,  a  sudden  recollection  of  the  past, 
and  the  destiny  that  awaited  him.  It  was  to 
the  grisly,  monstrous  gallows  that  he  was  to  go, 
and  not  to  healthful  toil  in  the  hay-fields  and 


McINTYRE'S  FALSE  FACE.  293 

to  the  companionship  of  the  pretty  Idella  in  the 
peaceful  farm-house. 

He  had  foreseen  the  end  even  in  the  midst 
of  his  fury,  but  had  cried  to  himself,  glorying, 
with  a  kind  of  desperate  improvidence,  in  his 
deed. 

"  Very  well !  it  is  the  price  I  will  pay." 

The  island  family  saw  no  more  of  their  quon 
dam  protege  till  he  stood  in  the  prisoner's  pen, 
in  the  city  of  nearest  jurisdiction.  They  looked 
at  him  there  with  a  startled,  fearful  fascination. 
It  seemed  incredible  that  a  friend,  an  inmate 
of  their  household,  almost  a  son,  could  have 
done  the  hideous  crimes  laid  to  his  charge.  If 
it  were  so,  they  believed  there  must  first  have 
been  operated  in  him  some  physical  change, 
which  had  affected  every  atom  of  his  frame, 
and  made  him  a  totally  different  being. 

The  hurts  of  Fosdick  proved  serious,  but, 
though  he  was  slow  of  recovery,  not  perma 
nently  disabling. 

Nor  was  it  by  him,  but  rather  in  the  interest 
of  the  sailor  shot  at  the  same  time,  whose 
wound  gangrened  and  proved  mortal,  that  the 
criminal  was  pursued  in  the  courts  of  justice. 

He  met  with  Idella  during  the  trial.  She 
was  the  trimmest  and  neatest  figure  in  all  the 
court-room.  Yet  somehow  his  crack  on  the 
head  had  disillusioned  him,  and  made  him 


294  McINTYRE'S  FALSE  FACE. 

amazingly  fastidious.  To  his  new  state  of 
mind,  her  commonness  of  manners,  her  least 
solecism  of  speech  or  action  was  glaringly  ap 
parent.  Her  family  and  neighbors  too,  away 
from  their  island,  were  stripped  even  of  the 
small  interest  he  had  attached  to  them  there. 
Idella  said,  "  I  seen  it "  and  "  I  done  it,"  and 
ate,  at  the  hotel  table,  with  her  knife, —  daintily, 
it  is  true,  but  still  indisputably  with  her  knife. 
Fosdick  could  not  make  himself  to  feel  in  need 
of  further  repentance  now.  He  thought  it  pe 
culiarly  hard,  in  fact,  and  out  of  all  proportion 
to  his  offense,  that  so  tremendous  a  retribution 
had  come  down  upon  him,  a  year  after  he  had 
resolutely  broken  off  the  flirtation,  without  the 
slightest  intention  of  ever  renewing  it. 

At  the  same  time  he  felt  easier  in  his  mind 
after  a  little  explanation  they  had  together, 
when  his  ex-sweetheart  told  him :  "  I  should 
never  have  married  Alrick  Cooley,  even  if  I 
had  never  seen  you." 

He  was  easier  still  when  he  learned  within  a 
year  that  she  had  married  the  faithful  mail- 
boy,  and  later,  that  this  mail-boy  had  been  ap 
pointed  lighthouse  keeper,  and  made  her  a 
most  excellent  husband. 

Alrick,  in  a  second  trial,  which  an  ingenious 
counsel  procured  for  him,  was  adjudged  insane, 
and  committed  to  an  asylum  instead  of  a  prison. 


McINTYRPS  FALSE  FACE.  295 

From  this,  in  time,  he  was  released  as  cured, 
and  went  to  begin  the  world  anew  in  parts  un 
known. 

It  proved  that  the  idiot  Albon,  the  deformed 
brother,  who  had  been  once  his  care,  and  then 
his  shame,  became  in  the  dark  hour  of  his  trial 
the  most  efficient  of  all  his  protectors.  Pro 
duced  in  court,  he  made  a  profound  impression. 
When  all  the  circumstances  of  the  birth  and 
early  life  of  the  two  brothers  were  recited,  it 
was  the  opinion  of  a  jury  of  twelve  good  men 
and  true  —  locked  up  no  more  than  forty-eight 
hours  before  arriving  at  this  decision  —  that 
the  eccentricity  of  Alrick,  like  that  of  Albon, 
was  to  be  ascribed  entirely  to  Mclntyre's  false 
face. 


MISS  CALDERON'S   GERMAN. 


THE  first  advent  of  Mr.  Alexander  Dwight 
Braisted  Hicks  to  the  actual  cognizance  of  Miss 
Louisa  Calderon  was  on  the  occasion  of  the 
delivery  of  his  great  Yale  Commencement  ora 
tion  on  "  The  Causes  of  Decay  in  Nations." 

Could  nations  have  been  aware  in  time  of 
the  contents  of  this  admirable  document,  there 
is  no  telling  what  notable  events  might  have 
been  otherwise,  what  calamitous  consequences 
averted.  As  it  was,  his  own  name,  together 
with  that  of  his  treatise,  were  simply  misspelled 
in  the  newspapers ;  the  oration  aroused  no 
great  public  furor,  and  came,  in  time,  to  be 
thrust  into  a  very  dark  closet  and  regarded  with 
disdain  even  by  its  author. 

But  at  present  he  skipped  easily  around  the 
world  and  the  ages,  from  ancient  Assyria  and 
Athens,  to  Salt  Lake,  and  the  Argentine  Re 
public.  The  trading  Phoenicians,  the  Amphic- 
tyonic  League,  Carthage,  Venice,  the  Low 


MISS   CALDERON'S   GERMAN.  297 

Countries,  Macchiavelli,  Montaigne,  and  Macau- 
lay's  New  Zealander  sitting  on  the  rains  of 
London  Bridge  all  came  in  for  a  fair  share  of 
representation.  "What  do  we  everywhere 
find  ?  Is  not  the  lesson  ever  the  same  ?  And 
again  —  and  sixthly —  But  may  we  not,  despite 
this  long  record  of  disaster  and  decay,  despite 
the  momentous  portents  that  seem  to  lower  on 
the  horizon  of  the  future,  still  look  for  the 
dawning  of  a  brighter  day  ?  Oh  yes,  my  class 
mates,  fellow-countrymen,  fellow -patriots,  bid 
me  not  yet,  in  the  language  of  despair,  to 
doubt  of  the  glorious  destiny  that  still  awaits 
humanity  !  " 

The  attention  of  Miss  Calderon  was  not  un 
waveringly  riveted  upon  this  discourse,  though, 
it  was  the  particular  wish  of  her  brother  (James 
Borden  Calderon,  of  the  catalogue)  that  it 
should  be  so.  Her  brother,  where  he  sat,  with 
the  body  of  his  class  in  the  centre  aisle,  sent 
her  from  time  to  time  solicitous  glances  which 
said  as  plainly  as  words,  — 

"  Aha !  did  I  tell  you  so,  or  did  n't  I  ?  " 

She  telegraphed  back  in  return  some  faint 
sympathetic  smiles  which  might  have  meant  an 
entire  coincidence  of  critical  opinion  or  only  a 
sweet  sisterly  interest  in  himself. 

The  orator  of  the  day,  it  appeared,  was  one 
of  those  prodigies  which  our  institutions  of 


298  MISS  CALDERON'S   GERMAN. 

learning  do  not  fail  to  supply  annually  in  suf 
ficient  number.  His  devotee,  Calderon,  never 
had  done  talking  about  him  in  the  vacations.  It 
is  no  place  here  to  set  down  perfections  which 
would  require  solid  quartos  to  do  them  justice, 
but  Calderon  expatiated  without  ceasing  upon 
his  quickness  of  invention,  his  readiness  of  re 
source,  his  judgment,  memory,  the  profundity 
and  versatility  of  his  learning.  Hicks  had  even 
a  wondrous  mechanical  turn.  He  had  origi 
nated  an  anchor  which  was  looked  upon  with 
favor  by  the  vessel-men  at  Bell  Dock,  and 
which  he  thought  of  having  patented. 

Miss  Calderon  had  not  in  fact  been  as  much 
impressed  by  these  accounts  as  might  have 
seemed  desirable.  There  is  a  natural  perver 
sity  in  the  feminine  mind  at  the  school-girl  pe 
riod  which  does  not  always  respect  even  the 
highest  and  holiest,  and  this  perversity  she  ex 
ercised  at  the  expense  of  Mr.  Hicks.  She  had 
allowed  herself  to  mock,  among  other  things, 
at  his  superfluity  of  middle  names,  and  more 
than  once  had  inquired  in  her  letters  after  "  the 
Great  Hicks "  and  "  the  Extraordinary  Mr. 
Hicks."  Calderon  was  naturally  disgusted,  as 
an  admiring  brother  would  be,  at  a  levity  like 
this.  Still  there  was  nothing  to  be  done  but 
await  the  opportunity  of  some  meeting  between 
the  two,  when  its  insensate  folly  would  be  glar- 


MISS  C ALDER  ON* S   GERMAN.  299 

ingly  apparent.  Such  an  opportunity  had  now 
arrived,  and  the  Decay  of  Nations  was  in  mag 
nificent  train  to  produce  the  desired  conviction. 

There  were  locusts  rattling,  in  their  sultry 
way,  from  the  boughs  of  the  great  over-arching 
elm-trees  without.  Within  the  church,  the 
warm  atmosphere  was  heavy  with  the  odor  of 
flowers  and  sandal- wood,  and  full  of  a  sort  of 
mesmeric  flicker  of  waving  fans,  which  gave  a 
drowsy  influence.  It  was  hard  to  fix  one's  at 
tention.  Lou  Calderon's  wandered  to  a  hat  al 
most  exactly  like  her  own,  upon  another  young 
head  in  the  vicinity,  and  the  speculation  could 
hardly  fail  to  be  suggested  whether  she  too 
should  not  have  done  well  to  choose  the  ruffled 
bow  instead  of  the  buckle. 

A  further  distraction  was  an  elderly  gentle 
man,  who  had  made  her  acquaintance  earlier 
in  the  day  and  now  bent  over  occasionally  from 
his  seat  in  front,  to  address  her  confidential  re 
marks. 

One  could  hardly  have  taken  him  for  any 
thing  but  a  business-man,  as  he  was.  His  dress 
was  neither  good  nor  bad,  his  speech  neither 
elegant  nor  coarse.  His  hair  stood  up  in  a 
rather  spiky  manner.  An  air  of  being  ready 
to  date  an  acceptance  ahead,  for  a  round  lot,  or 
throw  off  an  extra  five  per  cent,  for  cash,  was 
not  in  abeyance  even  in  his  time  of  relaxation. 


300  MISS  CALDEEON'S  GERMAN. 

He  spoke  to  the  young  girl  with  the  freedom  of 
superior  age  and  of  an  assured  standing. 

"  You  don't  remember  me,  of  course,  —  I  sup 
pose  not,"  he  had  said  ;  "but  I  know  you.  You 
must  excuse  me,  but  I  have  been  looking  at  you 
for  some  time.  I  ought  to  know  John  Calde- 
ron's  daughter,  I  should  think." 

"  My  father  ?  "  said  Miss  Lou,  elevating  her 
eyebrows. 

"  Why,  certainly ;  John  Calderon.  Our  stores 
were  alongside  of  each  other  for  years.  After 
he  went  out  of  trade  I  kind  of  lost  sight  of  him. 
I  have  trotted  you  on  my  knee  many  a  time. 
I  could  hardly  do  that  now,  with  such  a  pretty 
girl,  old  fogy  as  I  am." 

"  Oh !  "  said  the  young  girl,  thinking  him 
eccentric,  but  pleased  with  the  compliment. 

Miss  Annie  Valentine,  her  companion,  whose 
guest  she  was  in  the  town  for  the  few  days  of 
these  festivities,  sat  by  with  an  amused  look. 

"  Yes,  my  name  is  Hoopley,"  continued  the 
stranger  ;  "  you  may  possibly  have  heard  of 
me.  I  have  a  boy  here  ;  that  is  why  I  am  on 
hand.  He  does  n't  seem  to  come  on  the  stage 
and  show  off,  among  the  geniuses.  Well,  we 
can't  all  be  geniuses.  I  '11  have  to  make  a  mer 
chant  of  him.  —  Let's  see;  you  had  a  brother 
too.  He  ought  to  be  pretty  well  along  by  this 
time." 


MISS   CALDERON'S   GERMAN.  301 

"  Oh  yes  ;  he  is  one  of  the  graduates  to-day." 

"  I  want  to  know  if  John  Calderon  has  a  son 
old  enough  to  be  a  graduate.  Well,  well,  how 
time  goes !  I  must  look  him  up.  He  and  my 
boy  ought  to  be  friends." 

The  orator  descended,  and  walked  up  the 
aisle,  adjusting  his  wrist-bands,  with  a  calm 
consciousness  of  intellectual  power  and  desert 
in  the  plaudits  lavishly  bestowed  upon  him. 
He  had  done  grandly  and  he  knew  it.  Noth 
ing  occurred  to  mar  the  desirable  state  of  mind 
in  which  he  was  left  till  evening,  for  which  the 
University  Ball  was  set. 

He  went  to  this  entertainment,  but  estab 
lished  himself  in  a  favorable  position  only  as  a 
spectator  —  to  find  material,  in  the  shifting, 
parti-colored  crowd,  for  Thought.  He  did  not 
dance.  If  any  imputed  as  a  fault  the  omission 
from  his  repertoire  of  so  slight  an  accomplish 
ment,  they  were  not  persons  whose  opinions 
were  entitled  to  the  least  degree  of  respect. 

The  truth  about  his  dancing  was  —  if  the  di 
gression  be  pardoned  —  that  his  ignorance  of 
it  was  the  result  of  youthful  caprice.  He  had 
entertained  an  impression  at  a  very  early  ag3 
that  music  and  dancing  were  effeminate  arts, 
by  no  means  fitted  to  form  part  of  the  occupa 
tion  of  the  Spartan-like  being  whom  he  figured 
the  ideal  boy  to  be. 


302  MISS   CALDEROWS   GERMAN. 

uYes,  you  want  to  make  a  girl  of  me,"  lie 
had  replied  with  withering  sarcasm  to  all  effort 
in  this  direction.  "  You  will  want  me  to  sew 
next.  I  won't  dance !  "  he  persisted  heroically. 
"  I  won't  dance  with  a  girl^  any  way." 

Mr.  Hoopley  was  also  present  at  the  Univer 
sity  Ball.  During  the  day  he  had  conversed 
with  the  president  of  the  University,  and  calcu 
lated  the  profits  in  a  removal  from  the  present 
site  and  sale  of  the  buildings.  He  seemed  to 
feel  his  own  presence  "  among  the  young  fry  " 
as  a  sort  of  grim  joke.  Being  here,  however, 
he  thought  how  it  might  be  turned  to  account. 
His  children  were  poor  and  would  have  their 
own  canoes  to  paddle  in  the  world.  If  they 
could  conciliate  friends  in  prosperous  circum 
stances  so  much  the  better. 

Mr.  Hoopley  had  a  large  family,  which  for 
economy's  sake  he  kept  in  a  suburban  town 
near  the  metropolis.  He  no  doubt  intended  to 
act  for  their  best  good,  but  consulted  it  often  in 
a  way  that  seemed  intolerable  tyranny.  In 
spite  of  his  formidable  business  air  also,  he  had 
had  no  great  success  in  his  affairs.  He  had 
been  through  at  least  one  bankruptcy,  and 
there  had  been  rumors  at  the  time —  but  when 
are  there  not  rumors  ?  Besides,  is  a  man  with 
the  pressure  of  a  family  upon  him  to  be  amen 
able  to  all  the  petty  scruples  so  easily  observed 
by  people  whose  affairs  go  swimmingly  ? 


MISS   CALDEROWS   GERMAN.  303 

"  It  seems  to  me,"  said  he,  in  confidential  ad 
vice  to  his  son  at  the  University  Ball,  "  that  if 
I  was  a  young  fellow,  I  should  make  up  to  that 
girl  of  Calderon's.  She  will  have  fifty  thousand 
dollars  from  her  father's  estate,  and  maybe 
more." 

To  Calderon,  the  brother,  when  he  had  re 
newed  the  old  acquaintance  he  claimed  with 
him,  his  manner  was  the  perfection  of  brusque 
hospitality.  He  pressed  him  to  visit  them. 

"Any  friend  of  my  son's,"  he  exclaimed  cor 
dially.  "This  must  be  kept  up  —  this  must  be 
cultivated.  As  long  as  we  have  a  crust  in  the 
house,  any  friend  of  my  boy's  can  have  'most 
all  of  it." 

Calderon  had  been  hurrying,  when  thus  de 
tained,  to  find  the  extraordinary  Hicks  for 
presentation  to  his  sister,  and  now  went  on.  He 
hoped  that  Hicks,  though  not  a  dancing  man, 
would  be  good  enough  not  to  object  to  this.  He 
desired  his  sister  to  have  the  honor  and  im 
proving  influence  of  Hicks's  acquaintance. 

Mr.  Hicks,  magnanimously,  did  not  object  to 
be  presented. 

Miss  Calderon,  in  her  part  of  this  ceremony, 
made  him  a  profound  courtesy.  She  sank  down 
with  a  willowy  droop ;  she  rose  with  a  touch 
of  hauteur.  He  made  the  observation,  —  un 
wonted  for  him,  —  during  the  moment  in  which 


304  MISS  CALDERON'S  GERMAN. 

her  bright  eyes  were  lowered  and  their  long 
dark  lashes  lay  upon  a  complexion  fresh  and 
healthful,  without  decided  color,  that  she  was  re 
markably  prett}^.  Her  mouth,  somewhat  large, 
opened  to  laughter  upon  slight  provocation,  and 
displayed  dazzling  white  teeth.  She  had  placed 
near  one  corner  of  it  a  most  vain  and  worldly 
dot  of  black  court-plaster.  Her  round,  young 
arms,  a  little  angular  as  yet,  were  bare.  Above 
a  delicate  line  undulating  about  the  shoulders, 
the  diaphanous  muslin  which  covered  them  took 
the  warm  ivory  tinge  of  the  flesh  beneath. 

"  I  think  very  highly  of  your  brother,"  began 
Mr.  Hicks,  when  he  had  given  her  his  arm  for 
a  promenade. 

"  How  patronizing  !  "  was  her  internal  com 
ment.  She  set  to  work  at  once  to  devise  un 
comfortable  responses  for  him.  He  touched 
upon  the  exercises  of  the  day. 

"  If  he  thinks  I  am  going  to  congratulate  him 
upon  his  pompous  old  oration,"  she  reflected, 
"  he  is  very  much  mistaken."  And  so  he  was. 
If  he  chose  light  topics,  she  accused  him  of 
making  concessions  to  her  inferior  mental  cali 
bre  ;  if  graver,  of  pedantry.  It  was  strange 
how  poorly  they  got  along.  In  despair,  for  the 
mere  purpose  of  keeping  up  the  talk,  he  turned 
to  the  Townsend  prize  essays,  the  award  of 
which  had  been  recently  made.  The  style  of 


MISS   CALDEROWS   GERMAN.  305 

treatment  adopted  by  Smith  of  Pomfret,  in  his 
discussion  of  "  Suffrage  as  a  Natural  Right," 
seemed  to  him  especially  admirable. 

"  The  suffrage  is  not  altogether,  as  it  were," 
said  he,  "  a  natural  right.  It  is  a  gift  of  soci 
ety  granted  upon  certain  definite  conditions." 

"I  suppose  you  are  very  fond  of  dancing?  " 
said  Miss  Calderon,  with  a  languid  air. 

"  Well,  no,  —  ahem  —  no,"  replied  Mr.  Hicks, 
" 1  do  not  —  exactly,  —  as  it  were  —  dance." 

"  Oh,  don't  you  ?  "  she  exclaimed,  with  an 
extreme  rising  inflection.  "  I  think  it  anybody's 
Christian  duty  to  dance." 

A  ripping  and  rending  sound  was  audible. 
Confused  by  a  transition  from  Smith  of  Pom- 
fret  to  the  newer  topic,  so  sudden  that  it  made 
his  head  swim,  he  inadvertently  trod  upon  a 
lady's  train  pulsing  gracefully  along  in  front  of 
them,  and  tore  it. 

"  I  hope  it  is  not  irreparably  injured,"  he  re 
marked  with  concern  to  his  companion. 

"  Oh,  no,  such  matters  are  easily  repaired. 
It  is  different  from  the  decay  of  nations." 

She  slightly  nibbled  her  exquisite  under  lip. 
It  was  not  possible  that  she  was  laughing  at 
him?  That  would  have  been  a  novelty,  in 
deed,  for  Alexander  Dwiglit  B misted  Hicks. 
Still,  he  was  thoroughly  uncomfortable,  and 


306  MISS   CALDERON'S   GERMAN. 

would  have  been  glad  when  the  interview  ended, 
except  for  the  manner  in  which  it  ended. 

Mr.  Hoopley  came  up  to  them,  putting  for 
ward  his  son  with  a  hearty  air. 

"  I  want  to  see  you  making  friends  with  this 
nice  girl  that  I  have  discovered  in  my  travels," 
said  he  loudly.  "  What  sort  of  taste  have  you 
got  ?  If  I  were  a  young  fellow,  I  should  have 
my  name  down  in  her  day-book  there,  a  page 
or  so.  You  are  a  dancing-jack,  aren't  you? 
You  understand  this  whirligig  business,  — don't 
you  ?  " 

"He  must  not  be  scolded,"  said  she;  "he 
has  done  his  painful  duty.  We  have  one  en 
gagement,  at  least,  and  it  seems  to  me  it  is  the 
very  next  to  this." 

"  Oh,  you  know  him,  do  you  ?  Well,  he  is  n't 
a  spokesman,  like  our  friend  Hicks  here.  He 
probably  won't  ever  set  any  rivers  on  fire.  You 
must  take  him  as  a  kind  of  favor  to  his  family, 
when  there  's  nobody  else  to  be  had." 

Far  from  being  a  backward  youth,  as  de 
scribed  by  his  father,  the  young  Hoopley  was 
in  fact  shrewd,  quick,  of  a  certain  cynical  hu 
mor,  and  likely  in  time  to  do  full  credit  to  the 
head  of  his  house. 

"  Is  n't  he  the  most  incorrigible  old  duffer 
that  ever  was  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  No !  "  protested  Miss  Lou,  pleased  with  the 


MISS  CALDERON'S   GERMAN.  307 

broad  flattery  she  had  received,  and  still  more 
with  the  manner  of  fatherly  kindness,  sadly  un 
wonted  to  her,  for  she  had  lost  both  parents  of 
her  own  long  before.  "I  think  him  just  as 
jolly  and  nice  as  he  can  be.  That 's  only  his 
way." 

"  Well,  it 's  a  very  poor  way." 
It  was  highly  irrational,  of  course,  but  Mr. 
Hicks  began  to  find  himself  made  uncomforta 
ble  by  no  more  than  a  bare  inspection  of  Miss 
Calderon's  conduct  after  this.     He  observed  her 
chat  with  the  greatest  zest  with  such  inconse 
quential  fellows  as  Smallgood,  and  the  callowest 
of  under-classmen,  —  persons  who  hardly  knew 
Agamemnon   from    Aristides.     She   made    pre 
tense  of  dangerously  assailing  them  with  her 
fan.     The  cool  unconcern   with  which  she  al 
lowed  them  to  encircle  her  waist,  belted  into  its 
zone  of  dainty  laces,  was  enough  to  cause  fore 
bodings  of  the  speedy  decay  of  any  nation  in 
which  such  things  were  possible. 

He  did  not,  however,  refuse  in  consequence 
to  pay  a  visit  to  her  with  her  brother,  on  the 
following  evening,  at  the  house  of  Miss  Valen 
tine.  In  the  calmer  circle  of  domestic  life  he 
felt  that  his  exceptional  powers  would  be  able 
to  display  themselves  at  last  to  their  proper 
advantage ;  and  he  burned  for  the  opportunity 
to  establish  himself  in  his  natural  prominence. 


308  MISS  CALDEROWS  GERMAN. 

It  is  really  painful  to  have  to  record  that  this 
second  attempt  was,  if  anything,  even  less  suc 
cessful  than  the  first.  The  intellectual  gifts 
of  Mr.  Alexander  D wight  Braisted  Hicks 
seemed  to  be  in  some  inexplicable  way  under 
eclipse.  Miss  Calderon,  quite  early  in  the  con 
versation,  caught  up  a  pretty  Maltese  kitten  of 
the  house  that  happened  by,  kept  it  on  her  lap, 
purred  and  cooed  to  it,  and  gave  to  it  at  least  as 
much  of  her  attention  as  to  him. 

Her  brother,  who  saw  the  manner  of  the  in 
terview,  looked  stern  reproach  at  her  across  the 
parlor  for  this,  but  she  affected  not  to  under 
stand.  She  raised  her  eyebrows  or  wrinkled 
her  forehead,  as  in  limpid  innocence,  or  quiz 
zical  inquiry.  Other  visitors  arrived.  Hicks 
lapsed  into  silence,  wholly  discouraged.  Not 
ing  this,  she  presently  turned  to  him  and  in 
cluded  him  in  some  sweeping  remark,  as,  — 

"  And  Mr.  Hicks,  who  seldom  talks." 

"  You  hardly  appreciate  how  very  much  I 
improve  my  mind  by  listening,"  he  returned,  in 
irony  as  withering  as  he  dared. 

For  the  first  time,  upon  this,  she  gave  him 
a  certain  glance  of  favor.  Perhaps  she  was,  in 
her  small  way,  of  that  Brunhilda  type  which 
is  best  pleased  by  an  exhibition  of  rurle  mas 
tery.  Perhaps  she  was  not  to  be  won  till  bound 
hand  and  foot  with  the  girdle  of  Siegfried. 


MISS   CALDERON'S   GERMAN.  309 

"  Must  you  go  ? "    she  asked   him,   tantaliz- 

ino-lv,  when  he  arose  to  take  his  leave. 

&  j ' 

"  I  fear  I  must." 

And  he  bowed  gravely  over  his  hat,  which 
he  held  in  both  hands. 

His  last  glimpse  of  her  showed  her  standing 
near  the  doorway,  endeavoring  in  a  laughing 
panic  to  avert  the  paw  of  the  playful  kitten, 
which  had  climbed  upon  her  shoulder  and  was 
aiming  at  the  tangles  of  her  shining  hair. 

It  would  hardly  be  credited,  but  it  is  true, 
that  so  sage  a  philosopher,  so  profound  an  in 
quirer  into  the  destinies  of  nations  and  the  like, 
should  go  to  his  home,  in  a  distant  city,  and 
institute  complaints  in  the  bosom  of  his  family 
that  he  had  not  been  taught  to  dance. 

"  But,  my  son,"  expostulated  his  mother,  sur 
prised  and  anxious,  "  I  did  everything  in  this 
world  to  have  you  learn,  as  you  know,  and  you 
would  not." 

"  I  know,  I  know,"  he  responded,  still  quer 
ulous,  "  but,  all  the  same,  you  ought  to  have 
made  me." 

II. 

Young  Calderon  was  warmly  urged  further 
to  make  the  visit  to  the  Hoopleys  at  their 
place  at  Woodstone,  as  suggested,  and  he  ac- 


310  MISS   CALDEROWS  GERMAN. 

cepted.     His  visit  was  in  time  returned  with 
interest  by  young  Hoopley.     Hoopley  began  at 
once    to    make  a  bold  push   to    carry  out  the 
views  laid  down  by  his  father  with  regard  to 
the  rich  and  pretty  sister.     It  cannot  be  said 
that  he  makes  over  other  admirers  any  very  no 
table  progress  at  first.     Still,  she  is  but  eight 
een,  and  her  full  property  rights  do  not  begin 
till  she  is  twenty-one.     He  establishes  a  good 
understanding  with   her,  so   that   there   is  no 
reason  for  discouragement,  and  he  can  keep  his 
eyes  open  in  other  directions  in  the  mean  time. 
Hoopley  took  a  business  career.     In  course 
of  time  he  set  up  a  bank  at  Woodstone,  under 
the  eye  of  his  father,  and  in  partnership  with 
a  capitalist,  Brodhead,  who  was  induced  to  put 
in  the  greater  part  of  the  funds,  as  against  his 
knowledge  of  affairs  and  influence  in  the  local 
ity.     Woodstone  was  a  place  to  which,  at  this 
time,  much  attention  was   being  directed.     It 
was  maintained  by  some  that  investment  could 
nowhere  so  advantageously  be  made  as  in  its 
fast -appreciating   improvements.      The   Hoop- 
leys  were  enthusiasts  in  the  "  boom,"  as  it  was 
called,   and   the  elder   Hoopley  mortgaged  his 
scanty  possessions  liberally  to  become  the  head 
and  front  of  a  corporation  known  as  the  Wood- 
stone  Land  and  Loan  Company,  engaged  in  for 
warding  the  improvements. 


MISS  CALDERON'S  GERMAN.  311 

Calderon,  for  his  part,  chose  to  go  into  the 
profession  of  medicine. 

The  place  for  the  gifted  Hicks  was  naturally 
the  law.     He  made  a  year's  preliminary  studies 
at  his  home  and  then  came  to  New  York,  bring 
ing  with  him  a  vivid  recollection  of  the  fasci 
nating  Miss  Calderon.     She  had  scarcely  been 
absent   from   his   thoughts   an    instant   in  the 
mean  time.     If  he  had  fallen  in  love  with  her, 
as  seemed  very  probable,  it  would  have  been 
hard  to  tell  why.    It  must  have  been  the  power 
of  purely  feminine  good  looks  alone,  since  he 
had  seen  so  little  else,  so  little  of  qualities  of 
mind  or  character  to  account  —  according  to  his 
own  theories  of  what  would  have  been  justifi 
able  in  the  matter — for  the  feeling.    He  longed 
for  her  possession,  as  he  might  for  that  of    a 
charming  vase   or  flower,   or  lovely  jewel,   to 
which  it  is  no  disparagement  that  it  has  not 
long  been  known,  and  is  seen  but  for  the  first 
time.    Once  seen  it  is  revered,  allures,  entrances 
on  the  instant.     This  had  happened  to  Hicks, 
as  it  has  to  others,  as  wise,  before  him.     Not 
that  he  could  be  expected  to  admit  so  much. 
On  the  contrary,  he  constructed  for  her  an  ideal 
nature  in  keeping  with  the  fair  externals  that 
won  him.     In  his  view  she  was  —  she  must  be 
—  noble,  generous,  of  a  good  heart  and  keen 
interest  in   the  higher  things  of  life,  only  ob- 


312  MISS  CALDEROWS   GERMAN. 

scared  a  little  at  present  by  waywardness  and 
some  defects  of  early  education.  As  to  her 
early  education  it  had,  no  doubt,  its  defects, 
for  it  was  under  the  lax  government  of  a  weak 
maiden  aunt,  who  had  succeeded  to  the  direc 
tion  of  the  Calderon  household  when  it  was 
bereft  of  both  parents,  and  allowed  her  to  do 
just  as  she  pleased. 

Calderon  had  now  gone  to  Vienna,  for  its  su 
perior  advantages  in  medicine.  He  had  taken 
the  specialty  of  an  eye  and  ear  practice,  follow 
ing  thus  a  tendency  of  the  time  towards  divis 
ion  of  labor  in  his  profession  and  trusting  to 
make  the  most  of  his  moderate  abilities. 

The  absence  of  Calderon  made  the  reopening 
of  the  acquaintance  a  little  more  difficult  for 
Hicks  ;  still  he  found  means  to  reopen  it.  His 
heart  gave  a  strong  throb  when  he  first  saw 
her;  she  was  prettier  than  ever.  He  had  a 
keen  remembrance  of  his  early  rebuffs,  but  felt 
himself  more  a  man  of  the  world  now,  more  a 
master  of  himself.  He  had  learned  much  in 
the  mean  time.  She  would  be  more  impressed 
by  him,  and  he  would  know  better  how  to  take 
her  on  her  amiable  side. 

"  It  is  said  that  if  one  makes  an  excellent 
impression  the  first  time,"  he  began,  boldly,  on 
his  initial  visit,  "  he  will  do  well  to  stay  away, 
so  as  not  to  spoil  it.  I  have  determined  to  see 


MISS  CALDERON'S   GERMAN.  313 

if  the  reverse  be  not  also  the  case.  Our  first 
meeting  perhaps  hardly  came  up  to  expecta 
tion  on  either  side.  I  thought  you  a  little  rude, 
and  you  found  me  possibly  a  little  stupid.  Is 
it  not  so  ?  " 

"  I  cannot  be  expected  to  answer  for  your 
impression,  but  mine  was  not  very  different 
from  the  way  you  state  it." 

"  You  are  frank." 

"  But  you  began  it.  Did  you  not  say  that  I 
was  rude  ?  " 

«I  —  ah  —  that  is  —  an  unfortunate  expres 
sion,  used  but  in  jest.  Allow  me  to  withdraw 
it,  and  to  say  that  I  thought  you  at  the  time  all 
that  was  —  ah  —  amiable  and  — 

"  Perhaps  you  mean  to  imply  that  you  do 
not-  think  so  now  ?  "  she  cut  in  and  kept  him 
from  perjuring  himself  further. 

"  Really,"  he  cried,  badgered  into  an  outburst 
of  his  honest  conviction,  "  I  think  you  are  ab 
solutely  ferocious." 

Louisa  Calderon  threw  back  her  head  with  a 
merry  laugh.  Hicks  frowned  with  displeasure 
at  first,  but  the  next  instant  could  not  re 
frain  from  following  her  example.  After  this 
there  was  a  much  better  understanding  between 
them. 

Hicks  having  surrendered  unconditionally, 
there  was  no  longer  any  need  of  her  attitude 


314  MISS   CALDEROJTS  GERMAN. 

of  perpetual  menace  towards  him.  Out  of  the 
strong,  as  it  were,  came  forth  sweetness ;  out 
of  eater  came  forth  meat.  Still,  as  he  had  sur 
rendered,  he  could  hardly  expect  to  escape  all 
of  the  inconveniences  attending  the  lot  of  a 
prisoner  of  war.  He  aspired  to  the  dazzling 
pinnacle  of  her  supreme  favor,  and  he  was  not 
yet  admitted  even  to  her  select  coterie  of  inti 
mates.  He  was  not  yet  a  dancing  man  ;  how 
could  he  become  a  dancing  man  at  this  late  day? 
And  she  was  bent  upon  dancing  and  reveling 
in  her  youth,  like  a  bonny  young  Terpsichore 
of  Madison  Avenue.  He  hung  about,  growing 
more  and  more  enamored,  and  also  more  and 
more  disappointed,  looking  on  moodily  from  the 
position  of  wall-flower,  and  seeking  indications 
which  he  did  not  find.  Finally  he  went  away, 
saying  nothing  to  her  about  his  affection,  hav 
ing  made  up  his  mind  that  it  would  be  quite 
useless. 

Soon  after,  she  sailed  for  Europe,  to  join  her 
brother  at  Vienna,  and  make  a  long  stay  abroad. 
Hicks  set  up  an  office  for  the  practice  of  the 
law  in  his  native  place,  in  a  far  from  exemplary 
state  of  mind. 

There  were  substantial  reasons  —  he  said  to 
himself,  as  he  fumed  over  his  tasks  in  the  new 
office  —  why  he  could  hardly  have  pressed  his, 
suit,  even  with  the  most  ample  encouragement. 


MISS  CALDERON'S  GERMAN.  315 

He  "had  "a  fortune  in  his  education,"  as  he  had 
heard  his  family  say  was  intended,  but  there 
were  plenty  of  other  brothers  and  sisters  to  be 
taken  care  of  at  his  home,  and  that  was  practi 
cally  all  he  had.  This  had  in  the  college  period 
given  him  very  little  concern.  Successful  in 
his  studies  there,  puffed  up  with  his  small  tri 
umphs,  used  only  to  a  text -book  and  black 
board  view  of  existence,  as  it  might  be  called, 
he  had  expected  to  step  forth  into  the  world 
and  at  once  claim  the  place  rightfully  the  due 
of  the  man  of  superior  education  and  culture. 
He  had  at  one  time  flattered  his  soul  with 
the  somewhat  arrogant  motto :  "  The  man  of 
ability  needs  no  friends."  But  he  had  discov 
ered,  on  his  arrival  in  the  great  world,  a  very 
considerable  amount  of  ability  already  in  the 
field.  He  discovered  that,  pending  the  adapta 
tion  of  the  expensively-educated  citizen  to  its 
practical  requirements,  it  gets  along  very  well 
with  the  citizen  prepared  for  his  place  by  hard 
knocks  and  his  own  quick  wits.  The  man  of 
study  must  have  special  resources  within  him 
self,  he  must  extract  from  his  state  compen 
sating  pleasures  of  a  special  refinement,  or  else 
he  is  forever  at  a  disadvantage  with  the  man 
of  action  in  the  race  for  material  success.  This 
is  well-nigh  indisputable  philosophy,  but  it  is 
astonishing  how  cavalierly  even  good  philos- 


316  MISS  CALDEROWS  GERMAN. 

ophy  may  be  treated  by  a  young  man  who 
would  like  to  marry  at  once.  He  regretted 
that  he  had  not  been  put  to  service  in  the  most 
bald  and  sterile  kind  of  trade  at  fifteen,  that  he 
might  now  be  a  merchant  in  receipt  of  ample 
income,  and  master  of  his  own  destiny.  He 
came  one  day,  in  a  rage,  upon  his  manuscript 
Causes  of  Decay  in  Nations,  in  the  dark  closet 
to  which  he  had  committed  it,  and  tossed  it 
into  the  fire.  He  had  hoped  at  one  time  that 
it  might  be  demanded  on  the  lecture  platform, 
and  that  he  should  deliver  it  to  entranced  audi 
ences  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the 
land. 

Another  reminiscence  of  those  callow  days, 
which  he  came  upon  at  the  same  time,  was 
the  improved  anchor  invented  by  him.  This 
was  the  one  the  vessel-men  at  Bell  Dock  had 
thought  well  of,  as  above.  He  lingered  over 
it  meditatively ;  it  looked  surprisingly  good 
to  him.  He  could  not  see  what  was  the  mat 
ter  with  this  idea  even  now.  The  invention 
claimed  for  itself  increased  holding  power,  ex 
emption  from  fouling  the  cable,  facility  in  trip 
ping,  and  also  in  transportation  and  storage. 
These  advantages  were  to  be  obtained  by  pivot 
ing  the  flukes  upon  the  shank,  so  as  to  turn 
freely,  instead  of  making  one  and  fast  with  it 
in  the  usual  way  — "  all  substantially  as  de 
scribed." 


MISS   CALDERON'S   GERMAN.  817 

The  youthful  lawyer  took  it  out,  and  began, 
in  the  ample  leisure  he  enjoyed,  to  tinker  at 
it  again.  He  called  to  mind  the  great  fortunes 
often  made  by  such  things,  but  sighed  :  — 

"  Ah,  I  am  not  the  Aladdin  sort  of  fellow 
to  have  any  such  luck  happen  to  me." 

Nevertheless  he  made  ready  to  get  it  pat 
ented.  It  was  worth  risking  the  cost  of  the 
patent  fees  upon,  at  any  rate,  he  thought.  But 
in  the  midst  of  this  lie  obtained  employment  as 
junior  counsel  in  a  bank  case,  which  developed 
into  an  unexpected  importance,  and  the  anchor 
was  unceremoniously  put  away.  He  acquitted 
himself  so  well,  too,  in  the  bank  case,  as  to 
secure  further  business,  and  soon  quite  a  small 
run  of  prosperity. 

The  Calderon  brother  and  sister  returned  in 
due  course  from  abroad.  The  latter  brought 
with  her  a  supply  of  ravishing  Paris  toilettes, 
though  these  were  by  no  means  needed  to  en 
hance  her  natural  fascinations  and  draw  a  circle 
of  admirers  again  about  her.  The  brother 
brought  his  diplomas  as  a  full-fledged  doctor, 
and  proceeded  to  set  up  an  office  in  an  eligible 
location,  for  the  practice  of  the  eye  and  ear 
specialty. 

Hicks  had  managed  to  be  present  to  welcome 
them  back,  and  thereafter  began  to  avail  him 
self  of  every  possible  pretext  to  make  visits  to 


318  MISS   CALDEROWS   GERMAN. 

the  metropolis  and  them.  Oh,  joy  !  oh,  rapture  ! 
she  was  not  yet  engaged,  and  he  could  not 
learn  that  anybody  enjoyed  any  greater  favor 
than  himself.  Hoopley  was  very  persistent, 
but  Hoopley  somehow  seemed  utterly  out  of  the 
question.  In  these  visits,  if  he  chanced  not  to 
find  her,  he  talked  with  almost  equal  delight  to 
her  aunt,  usually  esteemed  a  very  uninterest 
ing  person.  His  state  of  feeling  surrounded 
with  a  halo  of  regard  everything  in  the  remot 
est  way  connected  with  her. 

One  day,  while  he  was  with  her,  a  package  of 
photographs  of  herself  was  sent  home  from  the 
maker's.  She  graciously  allowed  him  to  retain 
one.  Emboldened  by  this,  he  found  himself  the 
next  moment  rashly  proposing  to  her.  He  had 
had  almost  nothing  else  in  his  heart  and  on 
his  lips  ever  since  her  return,  but  he  had  not 
meant  to  come  to  it  in  this  sudden  way.  He 
threw  out  the  suggestion  of  the  inconceivable 
happiness  it  would  be  to  him  if,  with  the  pic 
ture,  he  might  be  allowed  to  hope  to  have  also 
at  some  time  the  dear  original. 

"  There  is  nothing  very  novel  about  your 
method,"  said  she.  "  You  might  have  found 
something  a  little  original.  They  all  say  that 
when  they  get  a  chance."  She  spoke  as  one 
being  an  authority,  and  he,  meekly,  did  not 
gainsay  her.  "  It  is  enough  to  take  one's  breath 


MISS  CALDERON'S   GERMAN.  319 

away  to  be  snapped  at  in  such  sudden  fashion. 
No,  of  course  you  cannot,"  she  concluded. 

He  returned,  and  renewed  his  importunity  on 
this  subject,  more  than  once,  so  that  it  got   to 
be  a  kind  of  quaint  controversy  between  them. 
"  I  tell  you  no"  the  girl  would  say.     "  I  like 
you  well  enough,  but  not  well  enough  to  marry 
you.     I  am  not  in  love  with  you." 
«  Oh,  why  ?  " 

"  You  have  gray  eyes,  for  one  thing,  and  you 
have  often  heard  me  say  that  I  never  could 
bear  gray  eyes." 

"They  are  not  gray, —  not  exactly, —  and,  be 
sides,  what  a  trifling  reason  that  is,  if  you  have 
none  better,"  the  harassed  lover  complained. 

"  It  is  not  trifling.  But  that  does  not  make 
any  difference ;  I  don't  wish  to  hear  anything 
more  about  it." 

Hicks  thought  of  making  her  brother  the 
confidant  of  this  affair,  but  the  new-fledged 
doctor  was  full  of  his  own  trouble,  and  he  did 
not  do  so.  The  doctor  had  seen  more  of  life 
in  the  mean  time,  and  considerably  abated  the 
exaggerated  reverence  in  which  he  had  once 
held  his  friend,  the  prodigy  of  college  days,  and 
was  besides  engaged,  with  small  success,  in 
building  up  a  practice. 

As  an  entire  ton  of  lead  is  squandered  in 
battle  to  the  end  of  the  destruction  of  every 


320  MISS   CALDERON'S   GERMAN. 

human  life,  so  each  patient  of  the  doctor  was 
secured  only  at  the  expense  of  an  infinitude  of 
time  and  pains.  A  small  fortune  in  time  and 
money  preceded  his  acquisition,  and  even  then 
he  was  not  sure,  for  the  doctor,  naively  betray 
ing  his  youth  and  inexperience,  was  apt  to  lose 
him  again  by  very  excess  of  solicitude.  Cal- 
deron,  in  fact,  with  the  very  best  disposition, 
had  not  the  art  of  "  getting  along  "  in  the  world. 
He  was  simple,  and  rather  vacillating  of  judg 
ment,  over-confiding,  to  his  own  detriment,  and 
of  a  hotness  of  temper,  when  stirred  up,  which 
increased  rather  than  diminished  his  liability 
to  be  imposed  upon.  In  the  untoward  condi 
tion  of  his  practice  he  began  to  take  counsel  as 
to  what  he  had  best  do ;  and,  oddly  enough,  it 
was  young  Hoopley,  as  it  happened,  to  whose 
advice  he  chiefly  committed  himself.  Young 
Hoopley  finally  came  forward  with  a  sudden, 
fortunate  inspiration. 

"  I  will  tell  you,"  said  he,  clasping*  his  hands 
together  behind  his  head,  as  he  sat,  in  an  easy 
chair,  in  the  doctor's  comfortable  apartment,  and 
biting  one  of  the  doctor's  excellent  cigars  tight 
in  his  teeth  and  talking  around  it,  "  I  hate  to 
make  a  man  feel  uncomfortable  when  there  is 
no  way  of  helping  the  case,  but  when  there  is, 
it  is  my  way  to  speak  out,  fair,  square,  and 
above-board,  every  time." 


MISS   CALDERON'S   GERMAN.  321 

Dr.  Calderon  listened  with,  interest. 

"  Frankly,"  said  the  adviser,  "  your  role  is 
business  and  not  a  profession.  Your  talents  all 
point  that  way.  I  have  long  seen  it.  Your 
perseverance,  thoroughness,  theoretical  notions 
of  minutiae  and  economy  are  all  thrown  away 
here,  in  a  profession  which  is,  besides,  greatly 
overcrowded.'' 

"No?  Why  I  don't  know,  half  the  time, 
which  is  the  right  window  to  go  to  to  get  my 
checks  cashed,"  returned  Calderon,  flattered  to 
have  so  admirable  a  list  of  qualities  ascribed  to 
his  credit. 

"  Oh,  all  that  is  easily  learned.  Details  are 
nothing  when  one  has,  like  you,  the  natural 
talent,  the  business  head.  I  should  not  won 
der,  now,  if  you  made  the  biggest  kind  of 
strike  in  some  such  line  as  ours.  If  I  were  you 
I  would  just  clear  out  this  beggarly  rabble  of 
patients,  strike  my  shingle,  and  make  a  totally 
new  deal." 

This  was  too  radical  advice  to  be  taken  at 
once,  but  Calderon  let  it  sink  deep  into  his  con 
sciousness.  Nor  was  this  a  mere  random  con 
versation.  It  proved  that  the  partner  B rod- 
head,  young  Hoopley's  associate  in  the  Wood- 
stone  bank,  was  at  this  very  time  anxious  to 
dispose  of  his  interest  and  get  out. 

"  He  wants  to  recuperate  his  health,  to  travel, 
21 


322  MISS   CALDERON'S   GERMAN. 

and  that  sort  of  thing,"  Hoopley  explained. 
"  He  is  an  eccentric  person,  is  Brodhead  ;  lets 
no  sacrifice  of  his  own  interest  stand  in  his  way, 
once  he  has  made  up  his  mind  to  do  a  thing. 
Now  here  you  have  a  half  interest  in  a  solidly- 
established,  paying  concern,  of  the  highest 
standing,  —  everything  A 1  about  it,  —  increas 
ing  custom,  gilt-edged  paper,  shares  of  the 
Crooked  Air  Line,  and  the  Woodstone  Land 
and  Loan  Company,  —  everything  ;  and  all  to 
be  had  at  even  less  than  Brodhead's  original 
investment.  It 's  a  chance  such  as  won't  occur 
again  in  years." 

The  elder  Hoopley  came  also  to  join  in  the 
persuasive  argument.  It  seemed  to  him,  too,  a 
chance  that  rarely  offered.  How  appropriate 
that  an  old  friendship  between  the  two  boys 
should  be  thus  cemented  by  a  prosperous  busi 
ness  connection.  What  a  perfect  and  restful 
confidence  they  could  have  in  each  other,  —  so 
different  from  the  usual  distrust. 

"  My  boy  Tom,  there,"  said  he,  "  would  trust 
you  with  untold  millions.  I  am  sure  of  it." 

"  You  are  right,  I  would,"  added  the  mag 
nanimous  Tom. 

Young  Calderon  weakly  yielded,  abandoned 
his  profession  of  medicine,  and,  as  much  to  his 
own  surprise  as  anybody  else's,  shortly  became 
a  banker.  One  half  of  his  purchase  -  money, 


MISS  CALDEROWS   GERMAN.  323 

paid  to  Brodhead,  was  the  same  evening  turned 
over  by  the  latter  to  Hoopley,  a  transaction 
which  almost  looked  like  a  commission  for  the 
sale  of  the  interest.  Brodhead  retired  to  his 
travel  and  the  recuperation  of  his  health  with 
but  a  shred  of  his  original  capital,  but  he  man 
ifested  a  good  deal  of  contentment  even  with 
that.  He  had,  in  fact,  cherished  the  hallucina 
tion  that  the  bank  was  about  to  break,  and 
thought  himself  well  out  of  it  on  any  terms. 
Nothing  of  course  could  be  more  baseless  than 
this,  for  had  not  both  the  Hoopleys  shown  Cal- 
deron  that  it  was  on  the  very  flood-tide  of  pros 
perity,  and  the  opportunity  to  buy  into  it  one 
of  those  rare  strokes  of  good  fortune  with  diffi 
culty  to  be  secured  ? 

Woodstone  appeared  to  continue  to  improve, 
as  an  opening  for  investments,  from  this  time 
onward.  The  bank  was  able  to  use,  in  these 
directions,  unlimited  funds,  and  by  degrees  all 
the  money  of  Calderon  was  transferred  hither. 
It  was  but  natural  next  that,  her  brother  being 
now  a  banker,  Miss  Calderon's  money  also 
should  be  deposited  in  the  bank. 

The  new  arrangement  brought  about  a  close 
intimacy  between  the  families.  Miss  Calderon, 
in  her  turn,  visited  the  Hoopleys,  found  that 
their  place  at  Woodstone  had  a  somewhat  run 
down-  at  -  the  -  heel  and  needy  air.  There  were 


324  MISS  CALDEROWS  GERMAN. 

numerous  little  children,  —  some  rather  un 
kempt,  —  and  it  was  but  a  ramshackle  convey 
ance  that  drove  her  to  and  from  the  station. 
But  the  fatherly  air  of  Hoopley  towards  her 
was  even  more  marked  than  before,  and  in  con 
sideration  of  this  she  took  a  genial  view  of 
everything.  She  reflected  that  kind  hearts  are 
better  than  fine  appearances,  and  was  disposed 
to  be  pleased  with  all. 

It  even  began  to  be  talked  at  this  time  that 
they  should  remove  to  Woodstone.  Her  brother 
was  anxious  to  do  so.  He  had  acquired  a  glib 
method  of  thumbing  over  bank  bills,  and  was 
now  the  paying-teller  of  his  own  bank.  His 
sister  did  not  desire  to  stand  in  the  way  of  what 
was  for  his  best  good  and  pleasure,  and  so  the 
handsome  New  York  residence  was  sold  and 
they  took  another  in  Woodstone,  depositing 
the  balance  saved  in  expenses  in  the  same  place 
as  the  other  funds. 

Long  before  this,  however,  Hicks  had  dropped 
off  from  his  long  r61e  of  patient  devotion,  finally 
abandoning  the  field,  as  he  said  to  himself.  A 
man  can  put  up  with  a  good  deal  in  this  way, 
but  there  comes  a  time  when  the  conviction  is 
forced  upon  him  that  the  heart  for  whose  sym 
pathy  and  affection  he  so  longs  is  hopelessly 
cold  towards  him  ;  and  this  time  had  come  for 


MISS  CALDEROWS  GERMAN.  325 

Hicks.  He  lapsed  into  a  sullen  moodiness. 
From  this  he  was  aroused  by  a  stinging  feeling 
of  resentment,  which  finally  accomplished  what 
all  other  motives  combined  had  not  been  able 
to.  He  threw  himself  into  the  gayest  of  com 
pany  ;  he  became  a  dancing  man,  and  an  ex 
cellent  one  at  that.  This  new  departure  was 
not  long  in  being  followed,  as  the  way  is,  by 
reports  of  especial  devotion  on  his  part,  now  to 
this  fair  one,  now  to  that.  Some  of  these  were 
carried,  by  roundabout  agencies,  even  as  far  as 
Miss  Calderon.  On  hearing  them,  she  charac 
terized  such  light  and  fickle  conduct,  in  her 
own  mind,  as  it  deserved. 

Some  reports  of  her  also  came  to  his  ears, 
especially  after  her  removal  to  Woodstone, 
where  there  was  a  family  of  Braisteds,  his 
near  relatives,  naturally  acquainted  with  all  her 
movements.  He  did  not  listen  too  willingly  to 
these  reports,  and  they  were  but  casual.  Finally 
came  a  rumor,  first  denied,  then  re-asserted,  of 
her  engagement  to  Hoopley.  This  seemed  to 
him  a  very  natural  consummation,  —  Hoopley 
being  her  brother's  partner,  —  and,  with  a  bit 
terly  afflicted  heart,  he  now  looked  upon  the 
affair  as  wholly  at  an  end. 

Five  years  had  elapsed  since  the  first  presen 
tation  of  Alexander  D wight  Braisted  Hicks  to 
Louisa  Calderon.  If  he  were  still  a  prig,  it  was 


326  MISS   CALDERON'S   GERMAN. 

not  for  want  of  hard  knocks  and  acquaintance 
with  many  phases  of  life.  His  elusive  dream  of 
happiness  and  its  disappointment  had  passed 
into  a  quasi-forgetfulness  ;  his  period  of  spas 
modic  gayety  had  lapsed  as  well,  and  he  had 
settled  back  into  something  like  his  normal, 
though  changed  self. 

The  improved  anchor  had  had  but  small 
share,  in  all  this  time,  of  an  attention  too  much 
engrossed  by  other  things.  It  had  been  pat 
ented,  nevertheless.  This  year,  in  a  more 
liberal  vacation  than  usual  which  he  allowed 
himself,  he  proposed  to  indulge  himself  in  the 
luxury  of  having  one  of  the  anchors  cast,  on  a 
large  scale.  In  the  mean  time  he  had  had  made 
a  number  of  pretty  miniature  models  of  it,  to 
distribute  among  manufacturers  and  others  with 
the  view  of  drawing  their  attention  to  it  and 
endeavoring  to  put  it  to  some  practical  use. 
True,  the  leading  manufacturers  had  rejected 
it  already.  Still  there  might  be  others  to  re 
ceive  it  more  favorably,  and  this  chance  he 
thought  well  to  try  for.  On  the  very  day  that 
the  models  came  home,  he  was  summoned,  by 
telegram,  to  go  and  draw  some  very  confiden 
tial  papers  for  his  relatives,  the  Braisteds,  at 
Woodstone.  He  would  much  rather  not  have 
gone  to  a  place  capable  of  exciting  in  him  mem 
ories  of  so  painful  a  nature,  and  where,  by  ac- 


MISS  CALDEROWS   GERMAN.  327 

cident  even,  a  painful  meeting  might  await  him. 
But  on  the  whole  it  was  not  in  the  least  likely 
that  he  should  meet  her ;  the  business  was  of 
but  a  few  hours  only,  and  it  was  of  pressing 
importance. 

He  thrust  his  miniature  models  hastily  into 
his  pocket,  in  order  to  examine  them  at  leisure 
on  the  way,  and  took  the  train. 

III. 

He  found  awaiting  him,  in  an  office  on  the 
pleasant  main  street  of  Woodstone,  one  of  the 
younger  Braisteds,  junior  partner  with  his  fa 
ther  in  a  firm  which,  according  to  the  inscrip 
tion  on  the  shades  in  the  plate-glass  windows, 
dealt  in  real  estate  and  commercial  paper.  The 
senior  partner  had  not  yet  come  down,  and  the 
two  gossiped  in  a  friendly  way  pending  his 
arrival.  Hicks  touched  lightly,  among  other 
things,  upon  his  patent,  and,  in  response  to  the 
request  of  Braisted,  who  manifested  an  interest, 
passed  over  one  of  the  small  models  for  inspec 
tion. 

At  this  very  moment,  as  the  fatality  of  des 
tiny  would  have  it,  two  ladies  in  a  pony  phae 
ton  drove  up  to  the  door,  and  here  again  were 
Louisa  Calderon  and  Annie  Valentine.  A  tiger 
in  ornate  livery  was  climbing  down  from  his 


328  MISS  CALDERON'S   GERMAN. 

perch  behind  to  deliver  a  message,  when  Brais- 
ted,  apparently  knowing  himself  called  for,  ran 
out  in  person  to  the  ladies  at  the  curb-stone. 

"  So  good  of  you  to  come  out,"  said  Miss  Cal- 
deron,  bending  forward  while  holding  the  reins 
loosely  in  her  lap.  "  We  want  you  for  to-mor 
row  evening,  if  we  can  get  you.  It  is  a  little 
German  for  Annie,  —  quite  impromptu.  I  am 
seeing  everybody  myself.  She  insists  that  she 
is  suddenly  called  home,  when  I  was  depending 
upon  her  to  make  me  such  a  nice  long  visit. 
Tell  her  how  bad  she  is." 

Braisted  looked  at  Miss  Valentine,  who  smiled 
gently  from  below  her  lace-edged  parasol,  in 
deprecation  of  her  badness.  He  was  still  dan 
gling  the  little  shining  metal  anchor,  which  he 
had  held  in  his  hand  at  the  time  of  the  inter 
ruption. 

"  What  is  that  ?"  asked  Miss  Calderon,  her 
attention  drawn  to  it. 

"  The  model  for  a  patent  anchor.  Will  you 
look  at  it  ?  By  the  way,  it  is  the  invention 
of  your  friend  Mr.  Hicks,  who  was  just  show 
ing  it  to  me,"  and  he  transferred  it  delicately 
from  the  hold  of  his  forefinger  and  thumb  to 
hers. 

"  Oh,  is  Mr.  Hicks  here  ? "  she  exclaimed, 
startled,  and  involuntarily  turning  to  gaze  at 
the  window,  where  she  detected  him,  staring 


MISS   CALDEKON'S   GERMAN.  329 

out  at  her  with  a  moody  and  contemplative 
air. 

"Possibly  Mr.  Hicks  will  honor  us  also?" 
she  added,  re-assuming  all  her  dignity  of  man 
ner. 

"  It  will  give  me  great  pleasure  to  go  and 
ask  him,"  said  Braisted,  and  he  ran  in  to  do  so, 
leavino-  the  model  with  her. 

O 

He  returned  the  next  moment,  bringing  with 
him  Hicks,  who,  having  been  discovered,  could 
hardly  refuse  to  make  his  appearance.  The 
sudden  apparition  of  his  lost  love  had  caused 
him  most  poignant  emotions,  but  he  was  now 
in  a  measure  in  control  of  them. 

"  How  do  you  do  ?  Is  n't  it  a  lovely  day  ?  " 
she  began,  as  if  they  had  parted  but  yester 
day  and  on  the  most  commonplace  of  terms. 
"  I  have  asked  Mr.  Braisted  to  help  me  per 
suade  you  to  come  to  a  little  German  we  are 
going  to  give  Annie- to-morrow  evening.  You 
are  not  fond  of  dancing,  I  know,  but  my  brother 
is  not  either  now,  he  is  getting  to  be  such  an 
inveterate  man  of  affairs  ;  and  we  will  try  to 
find  some  way  of  amusing  you." 

"  I  regret  that  I  shall  not  be  able  to." 

"  We  were  admiring  your  patent,"  continued 
Miss  Calderon,  apparently  paying  little  atten 
tion  to  this.  "  An  anchor  must  be  a  very  good 
thing  to  invent ;  it  is  the  emblem  of  hope." 


330  MI88   CALDEROWS   GERMAN. 

Hicks  looked,  in  surprised  reproach,  to  see  if 
there  were  a  meaning  in  this,  but  the  next  mo 
ment,  as  if  struck  by  another  thought,  she  said, 
holding  the  model  before  her  eyes  for  admira 
tion,  "  They  would  make  such  lovely  favors  for 
my  German." 

"  Perhaps  they  could  not  be  put  to  better 
use,"  said  Hicks.  "  I  have  a  pocketful,  spoiled 
in  the  casting,  by  the  omission  of  the  patent 
stamp  and  date,  and  they  are  quite  at  your  ser 
vice." 

"  But  you  cannot  spare  them  ?  " 

"  Oh,  yes,  perfectly,  —  if  you  will  take 
them." 

He  found  it  impossible  to  cherish  resentment 
in  her  winsome  presence,  though  a  secret  feel 
ing  at  the  same  moment  told  him  that  he  should 
experience  dire  consequences  of  bitterness  and 
repining  from  the  contact,  brief  as  it  was.  He 
drew  forth  the  models  and  placed  them  in  her 
lap. 

"  They  will  be  such  a  novelty ! "  she  ex 
claimed,  showing  a  childish  delight  over  them. 
"  They  must  have  little  pink  and  blue  ribbons 
run  through  the  rings  and  fastened  to  rosettes. 
You  shall  have  all  the  credit;  you  will  see 
what  a  great  success  they  will  be." 

"  I  thank  you  very  much.  I  am  here  but 
for  a  few  hours  only,  and  I  was  not  intending 
to  stay." 


MISS   CALDEROWS  GERMAN.  331 

"  But  you  might  if  you  wished  to,  —  and  on 
my  brother's  account,  if  not  mine." 

She  spoke  in  a  half-pouting  way,  but  he  was 
not  to  be  persuaded,  and  she  abandoned  him, 
with  an  air  of  reluctance,  and  drove  away. 

"  It  hardly  looks  right,"  said  Braisted,  as 
they  turned  back  again  into  the  office,  of  the 
blue  shades  and  plate-glass  windows.  "  She  *s 
a  nice  girl,  and  all  that,  but  it  would  be  a  lit 
tle  more  decent  for  them  to  try  and  get  along 
without  Germans  just  now." 

"  Just  now  ?  What  special  sort  of  time  is  it 
just  now  that  people  who  can  afford  it  should 
not  give  entertainments  if  they  wish  ?  " 

"  You  have  not  heard,  then  ?  But  how  should 
you,  for  you  do  not  live  here,  and  it  is  matter 
only  of  furtive  rumor  and  not  public  knowl 
edge  as  yet.  But  we  have  facilities  for  getting 
inside  information,  being  in  somewhat  the  same 
line,  and  I  don't  mind  letting  out  to  you  in 
confidence,  since  you  are  interested  in  them,  a 
point  or  two  about  Calderon's  bank." 

"  What  is  the  matter  with  it  ? "  queried 
Hicks,  in  sharp  surprise. 

"  Oh,  it  is  going  all  to  pieces.  Hoopley  and 
Calderon  are  hopelessly  loaded  down  with  all 
sorts  of  trash,  —  any  quantity  of  Land  and  Loan 
Company's  shares,  old  Hoopley's  private  paper, 
and  so  on.  They  've  been  in  a  bad  way  ever 


332  MISS   CALDEROWS   GERMAN. 

since  Brodhead  went  out.  He  got  out  only  by 
the  skin  of  his  teeth,  I  understand.  I  should 
not  be  astonished  to  hear  of  their  going  to  smash 
now  almost  any  day.  I  doubt  if  creditors  will 
be  pleased  then  to  recall  these  festive  doings, 
that 's  all." 

"  And  is  there  no  mistake  about  this  ?  " 

u  It  is  as  sure  as  fate." 

"  It  is  not  possible  that  Miss  Calderon  knows 
of  the  situation  as  yet.  They  must  have  kept 
it  from  her." 

"  Now  I  think  of  it,  that  may  be.  That  sim 
pleton  of  a  brother  of  hers  may  have  been 
afraid  to  tell  her.  He  has  probably  lost  her 
money  with  his  own.  I  would  hardly  care  to 
be  in  his  shoes,  the  idiot !  He  won't  be  able  to 
support  himself,  when  thrown  upon  his  own 
resources,  much  less  her." 

"  But  she  is  engaged  to  Hoopley,"  said  Hicks, 
nervously,  "  and  he  has  no  doubt  saved  some 
thing,  and  will  at  any  rate  be  a  better  pro 
tector." 

"  They  said  she  was  engaged  to  Hoopley  at 
one  time,  but  for  quite  a  while  past  I  've  doubted 
it,  if  it  ever  was  so.  That 's  one  of  the  bad 
signs,  you  see.  Hoopley  has  been  in  a  better 
position  than  anybody  else  to  know  just  what 
she  had,  and  what  he  could  make  out  of  her  by 
marrying  her.  He  's  seemed  to  play  fast  and 


MISS  CALDERON'S   GERMAN'.  333 

loose  with  her,  and  just  now  there  is  n't  much 
evidence  of  any  engagement  at  all.  I  've  al 
ways  half  liked  the  fellow,  —  he  's  good  com- 
pany?  __  but  I  believe  he  's  capable  of  throwing 
a  girl  over  in  a  minute,  as  soon  as  he  made  up 
his  mind  that  it  wasn't  to  his  advantage  to 
marry  her." 

This   hint   of    impending   trouble   found   in 
Hicks  a  sympathetic  auditor.     It  could  be  said 
of  him,  as  of  the  early  Scotch  monarch,  even 
had  the  case  been  one  in  which  he  possessed  no 
such  personal  interest  as  the  present,  — 
"  A  tender  heart  had  brave  Fitz- James, 
Fast  poured  his  eye  at  pity's  claims." 

"  I  infer,  then,  that  you  will  not  go  to  their 
German  ?  "  said  he,  by  way  of  rousing  himself 
from  a  half-absent  mood  of  pondering  commis- 
seration  and  tender  yearning  into  which  he  had 
been  plunged  by  the  intelligence. 

"  Oh,  yes,  I  shall,"  returned  Braisted,  cheer 
fully.  "  I  want  to  be  in  at  the  death,  and  I 
suppose  Jean  stand  it  if  they  can." 

At  the  earliest  feasible  moment  Hicks  hurried 
to  Calderon,  at  his  bank,  won  his  confidence  by 
working  with  all  the  ingratiating  art  at  his 
command  upon  his  feelings,  and  drew  the  whole 
miserable  story  from  him.  The  bankrupt  made 
at  first  a  faint  attempt  at  facetiousness. 

"  We  have  been  expecting  you  before,"  said 


334  MISS   CALDE RON'S   GERMAN. 

he.  "  It  was  well  you  did  not  put  off  your 
visit  longer,  or  you  might  not  have  seen  our 
magnificent  institution  at  its  best.  We  think 
of  putting  up  the  shutters." 

"  Is  it  so  bad  as  that,  my  poor  friend  ?  "  said 
Hicks,  with  no  inclination  at  all  to  smile. 

"It  is  worse  than  that,"  cried  Calderon, 
breaking  down  ;  "  it  is  worse  than  anything 
you  can  possibly  imagine.  "  Oh,  Hicks,  why 
have  I  been  so  robbed  and  ruined  ?  I  have  not 
a  dollar  left  in  the  world." 

Hicks  threw  a  strong  arm  for  a  moment 
about  his  shoulders,  calling  him  "  old  fellow," 
and  some  other  of  the  few  brief  expressions 
that  men  may  use  to  each  other  in  kindness. 

"  Poor  Lou  !  poor  Lou  !  "  groaned  the  broth 
er.  "  It  is  all  well  enough  for  me,  —  I  deserve 
it,  —  but  what  shall  I  say  to  her  ?  What  shall 
I  do  with  her  ?  " 

"  Hers,  too  ?  Her  means  of  livelihood  all 
gone  with  the  rest  ?  " 

"  Every  dollar  of  it ;  every  cent  of  it." 

"  And  what  has  become  of  it,  Calderon  ? 
Tell  me  truly.  I  want  to  help  you,  if  I  can." 

"  How  do  I  know  ?  Ask  Hoopley,  rather. 
Everything  was  in  his  hands  from  the  begin 
ning.  I  almost  suspect  him  of  being  a  swin 
dling,  d — d  scoundrel,  Hicks.  How  can  I  help 
it  ?  Oh,  why  have  I  been  so  ensnared  and 


MISS  CALDEROWS  GERMAN.  335 

plundered,  when  I  have  tried  so  hard  to  use  the 
gifts  that  I  had  and  make  an  honorable  posi 
tion  for  myself  and  the  rest  of  us  in  the 
world  ?  " 

"  One  thing  more  let  me  ask.  Does  your 
sister  —  does  Miss  Calderon  —  know  of  it  ?  " 

"  Not  yet.  I  have  not  had  the  heart  to  tell 
her  ;  and  shall  not  now,  till  this  entertainment 
is  over  and  her  friend  has  gone.  Such  is  the 
extent  of  my  notable  capacity  for  affairs.  She 
shall  have  one  more  day  of  uninterrupted  hap 
piness  in  her  life.  That  at  least  I  can  accom 
plish." 

The  first  important  case  of  Hicks,  as  we  have 
seen,  had  turned  upon  the  fraudulent  wrecking 
of  a  bank,  and  the  knowledge  thus  acquired 
now  again  proved  highly  useful. 

"  Let  us  begin  at  once,"  he  proposed  to  Cal 
deron,  "  an  examination  of  the  books,  while 
Hoopley's  suspicion  is  not  yet  excited,  and  we 
shall  not  be  interfered  with." 

"If  I  could  but  trust  you,  if  I  could  but  trust 
you ! "  moaned  the  unhappy  victim  of  misplaced 
confidence,  ready  to  manifest  distrust  of  the 
most  innocent  now,  when  hesitation  could  no 
longer  do  any  good.  Oh,  forgive  me,  forgive 
me  !  "  he  went  on.  "I  cannot  feel  that  I  have 
any  longer  a  friend  in  the  world." 

He  produced  the  books,  and  scanned  the  face 


336  MISS   CALDERON'S   GERMAN. 

of  the  friend,  newly  come  to  his  rescue,  with  a 
sort  of  helpless  docility. 

The  worst  surmises  of  Hicks  were  but  con 
firmed  by  this  inquiry.  The  pair  of  confiding 
young  people  had  been  shamefully  plundered, 
and  that  under  guise  of  the  most  sacred  feel 
ings,  under  pretense  of  romantic  and  generous 
friendship,  hospitality,  and  fatherly  care.  The 
examination  continued  nearly  all  night  and  ex 
tended  into  the  next  day.  Hicks  was  still  oc 
cupied  over  the  ledgers  when  Hoopley  came  in. 
Hoopley's  countenance  changed  when  he  saw 
what  was  being  done.  He  turned  pale,  and 
asked,  — 

"  To  what  may  we  attribute  this  kind  inter 
est  in  our  affairs  ?  " 

"Let  me  refer  you  to  Mr.  Calderon,"  re 
joined  Hicks,  frigidly. 

Philosopher  and  attorney  as  he  was,  he  could 
have  choked  the  perjured  rascal  with  a  good 
grace. 

The  sword  of  Damocles  was  thus  hanging 
above  the  house,  and  the  last  retaining  fila 
ments  of  the  hair  breaking  away,  as  it  were, 
when  the  dainty  diversion  of  Miss  Calderon's 
German  took  place.  The  dance,  as  is  its  wont, 
was  a  multitude  of  charming  plays,  such  as 
might  have  been  indulged  in  by  the  shepherds 


MISS  CALDEROWS   GERMAN.  337 

and  shepherdesses  of  a  Watteau's  Arcadia.  The 
dancers  raised  a  May-pole,  decorated  with  long 
colored  streamers,  the  ends  of  which  they  took 
at  random,  and  the  two  who  found  themselves 
with  streamers  of  the  same  color  were  partners. 
They  thrust  their  hands  at  random  over  the 
top  of  a  high  screen,  and  those  whose  hands 
met  were  partners.  Candidates  for  favor  were 
brought  up  behind  a  maid  seated  in  a  chair, 
and  looked  over  her  shoulder  into  a  mirror  in 
which  she  saw  them.  She  rejected  as  many  as 
might  suit  her  caprice,  till  she  found  the  right 
one,  and  whirled  away  with  him  in  the  sinuous 
dance. 

They  called  and  chose  one  another,  in  the 
various  figures,  by  the  names  of  flowers,  —  rose, 
pink,  azalea,  and  heliotrope.  They  decorated 
one  another  with  stars,  crosses,  rosettes,  and 
butterflies.  They  presented  nosegays  and  bon- 
bonnieres.  They  pulled  gilt  mottoes,  which 
parted  with  a  little  explosion,  giving  out  caps 
and  garments  of  tissue  paper.  These  they  put 
on,  and  danced  thus  in  motley.  There  were 
flight  and  chase,  captivity  and  setting  free  ; 
there  were  marching  columns,  labyrinths,  and 
enchainments.  Ever  and  again  they  broke  into 
the  gay  rotations  of  the  waltz,  the  soft,  en 
chanting  measures  of  which  unceasingly  per 
vaded  the  whole,  —  as  if  it  were  declared  that 


338  MISS  CALDERON'S   GERMAN. 

all  combination,  all  definitely  settled  plans  were 
vain,  and  the  only  good  was  in  a  mad,  joyous 
whirl.  There  was  a  zest  of  the  unpremedi 
tated  and  unforeseen,  so  that  those  who  espe 
cially  desired  to  be  partners,  when  they  found 
themselves  so,  could  be  pleased  with  fancies  of 
a  sudden  providential  interposition  in  their  fa 
vor. 

Miss  Valentine  was  a  very  pleasing  person, 
and  her  new  friends  of  the  place  expressed  a 
sincere  feeling  of  regret  that  she  must  go.  She 
was  dressed  in  pink,  of  a  soft  and  winning 
shade,  recalling  the  amiable  manners  she  pos 
sessed.  About  the  hostess,  Miss  Calderon,  on 
the  other  hand,  was  a  certain  dazzle,  in  keeping 
with  the  manner  of  her  youthful  beauty.  She 
wore  a  white  silken  gown,  of  a  creamy  tone, 
which  shot  out  gleams  through  an  over-drapery 
of  lace,  like  the  gleam  of  ripples  on  water  in  a 
mist. 

A  number  of  elderly  persons,  in  the  shape 
of  parents,  chaperons,  and  the  like,  were  also 
present  at  the  entertainment,  with  the  rest. 
They  looked  on  at  the  dancing  a  part  of  the 
time,  and  again  dispersed  to  amusements  of 
their  own.  Some  found  entertainment  in  whist, 
and  gave  it  no  little  interest.  Audible  laugh 
ter  and  controversy  from  their  tables,  at  times, 
drew  the  attention  of  some  fair  young  couple, 


MISS   CALDE RON'S  GERMAN.  339 

who  would  stop,  in  passing  by,  to  look  over  the 
shoulders  of  the  elders  and  exchange  glances  of 
quizzical  wonderment  that  persons  of  such  an 
age  could  still  find  zest  and  enjoyment  in  life. 

The  senior  Hoopley,  with  others,  held,  in  a 
certain  defiant  way,  a  place  among  these  wall 
flowers.  Calderon  had  not  countermanded  his 
invitation,  already  issued,  because  he  felt  that 
he  could  not  do  so  without  exciting  his  sister's 
mistrust  and  leading  to  inquiries.  Hoopley,  on 
the  other  hand,  presented  himself  here  by  way 
of  an  assertion  to  all  the  world,  —  to  be  taken 
into  account  afterwards,  —  that  he  was  not  a 
man  who  could  be  expected  to  keep  the  run  of 
all  the  bankruptcies,  or  who  knew  much  more 
about  them  than  anybody  else.  He  was  con 
versing  with  an  old  Mr.  Bolton,  a  wealthy 
retired  ship-builder,  who  had  come  with  his 
daughter,  and  they  talked  in  the  positive  way 
that  old  men,  long  fixed  and  confident  in  their 
opinions,  adopt.  They  had  got  upon  the  sub 
ject  of  political  reform. 

"  The  suffrage  is  to  blame,  in  the  first  place," 
said  he,  strenuously.  "  It  needs  purification  ; 
there  lies  the  point.  If  I  had  my  way,  I  would 
make  any  tampering  with  it  the  worst  offense 
on  the  statute-book.  I  would  hang  the  scurvy 
rascal  who  did  it  as  high  as  Hainan." 

"  Sound !  "  cried  Mr.  Bolton,  with  even  greater 


340  MISS   CALDEROWS   GERMAN. 

beat.  "  And  next,  sir,  we  ought  to  look  after 
the  thieving  villains  in  private  life  ;  those  car 
rying  out  the  betrayals  of  trust,  bogus  failures, 
and  all  the  financial  crimes  of  our  day.  Society 
is  rotten  with  them,  rotten  to  the  core.  They 
have  got  to  be  rooted  out." 

This  could  surely  not  have  been  intended  as 
of  a  personal  bearing,  yet  the  elder  Hoopley, 
for  some  unexplained  reason,  winced  under  it. 

It  need  hardly  be  said  that  young  Hoopley 
was  not  present,  being  very  much  occupied  just 
then  with  putting  some  few  affairs  of  his  in 
order,  preparatory  to  a  hasty  departure.  He 
purposed  to  remain  away  till  certain  develop 
ments  should  blow  over. 

A  very  blonde  young  girl  approached  Bolton 
with  a  little  anchor  and  other  trinkets  in  her 
hand,  and,  smilingly  getting  his  attention  from 
the  discussion,  said  :  — 

"  I  have  brought  you  my  favors  to  keep  for 
me,  papa.  Here  is  one,  a  pretty  anchor,  that 
is  quite  in  your  line.  Isn't  it  lovely?  I 
thought  it  would  amuse  you.  Sleepy  little 
papas  ought  to  be  amused  when  they  are  kept 
up  so  late." 

She  brushed  her  father's  cheek  with  a  little 
kiss,  and  he  dropped  the  favors  carelessly  into 
his  lap,  paying  the  anchor,  for  the  moment,  no 
more  attention  than  the  rest,  dismissed  her 


MISS  CALDERON'S   GERMAN.  341 

with  some  playful  admonition,  and  went  on 
with  his  talk  with  his  neighbor. 

Hicks,  coming  late  to  the  party,  leaned  for 
some  time  against  an  outer  door-jamb  and  looked 
in  from  the  hall  upon  the  scene  of  gayety, 
brightness,  and  color  in  the  drawing-rooms. 
He  could  regard  this  revelry  upon  the  very 
brink  of  ruin  with  but  a  gloomy  eye.  The 
merry,  rhythmic  dance  swept  by  him,  as  he 
gazed,  in  many  a  delectable  change.  Ever  his 
eye  sought  its  central  figure  as  she  moved  with 
looks  of  unwonted  foreboding  mingled  with 
tenderness  and  compassion.  Aspirations  to  save 
her,  were  there  any  way  possible,  struggled  in 
effectually  through  his  brain. 

All  at  once,  as  he  thus  meditated,  he  saw 
her  driven  towards  him  as  one  of  a  charming 
team  of  girls,  three  in  number,  trammeled  up 
in  the  harness  of  a  white,  silken  ribbon,  and 
urged  forward  by  a  youth  with  a  riding-whip 
in  his  hand.  It  was  the  whip  and  reins  figure 
of  the  German.  A  girl  was  forming  a  similar 
team  of  youths,  over  against  the  first.  As  she 
came  by,  she  threw  her  rein  playfully  over 
Hicks,  and  included  him  in  the  trio.  He  would 
have  protested,  but  she  would  grant  him  no 
respite.  Each  was  the  partner  of  him  or  her 
to  whom  he  found  himself  opposite,  and  he  was 
opposite  Louisa  Calderon. 


342  MISS   CALDE  RON'S   GERMAN. 

For  a  moment  he  saw  a  slight  involuntary 
trace  of  annoyance  upon  her  countenance.  How 
stupid  of  him,  she  was  thinking,  to  allow  him 
self  to  be  involved  in  the  dance  when  he  was 
not  a  master  of  it,  and  to  thus  show  an  unnec 
essary  awkwardness  I  Why  would  he  do  it, 
when  he  appeared  to  good  enough  advantage, 
as  she  admitted,  in  other  ways  ?  She  sup 
pressed  it  notwithstanding,  and  gracefully  held 
out  her  arms,  to  be  taken  into  his  when  they 
met,  purposing,  after  a  semblance  of  a  turn  or 
two,  to  make  him  go  for  a  glass  of  water  and 
return  her  to  her  seat. 

But  what  was  her  surprise  when  his  step 
melted  into  hers,  easily  and  in  the  most  perfect 
accord.  They  glided  away  together,  without  a 
jar,  in  harmony  with  the  delicious  music.  She 
felt  herself  firmly  supported,  lightly  and  know 
ingly  guided.  Never  had  she  danced  with  more 
ecstatic  zest ;  she  could  have  wished  that  the 
enchanting  measure  might  last  forever.  He 
whirled  her  back  at  length,  slowly  circling,  to 
her  place. 

"  I  suppose  you  think  you  have  accomplished 
something  very  wonderful  ?  "  she  said  to  him  as 
soon  as  she  could  get  her  breath,  panting  with 
pleasure. 

"  Not  in  the  least  wonderful,"  he  answered, 
smiling. 


MISS   CALDE RON'S   GERMAN.  343 

"  Where  and  how  did  you  learn  ?  "  she  could 
not  forbear  asking  next,  more  seriously.  "  You 
were  always  so  opposed  to  it,  and  made  such 
a  time  about  it." 

"  The  fascinations  of  our  girls  at  home  were, 
after  all,  too  much  for  me.  Oh,  they  are  fasci 
nators  there,  indeed,"  he  answered,  with  a  cer 
tain  roguishness.  She  appeared  slightly  crest 
fallen,  and  he  bowed  himself  away. 

Hicks  felt  his  spirits  involuntarily  elated  by 
this  incident.  It  was  a  species  of  small  triumph 
over  her  in  her  own  domain,  though,  to  be  sure, 
thought  of  triumph  at  such  a  time  was  un 
worthy.  So  good  a  dancer  as  he  did  not  lack 
further  invitations.  Miss  Calderon  began  to 
watch  for  the  first  time  with  a  certain  envy 
his  affable  acceptance  of  them,  and  his  graceful 
and  dignified  bearing,  from  which  she  could 
not  now  withhold  her  entire  approval. 

Towards  midnight  there  was  a  pause  while 
supper  was  partaken  of.  The  young  women 
spread  napkins  over  their  laps  and  bestowed 
themselves  comfortably  in  camp-chairs  or  on 
the  stairway.  Their  partners  brought  them, 
from  a  central  table,  oysters,  salads,  and  ices. 
A  merry  chatter,  broken  by  laughter,  filled  the 
rooms.  A  handsome  man  of  thirty  told  the 
company  of  his  mastiff,  which  had  come  gravely 
stalking  home  with  a  ham  in  its  mouth,  stolen 
from  nobody  knew  where  or  whom. 


344  MI88  CALDEROWS  GERMAN. 

"A  dog  like  that  is  worth  having,"  com 
mented  a  listener.  "  He  might  be  taught  to 
keep  the  house  in  provisions." 

"  This  teaches  us  never  to  resist  temptation," 
said  another  frolicsome  maid,  who  had  a  way 
of  tagging  on  a  moral  to  everything. 

"  For  my  part,  it  is  the  only  thing  I  can't 
resist,"  said  the  narrator,  gazing  at  Miss  Culde- 
ron,  who  passed  at  the  moment. 

Miss  Calderon  and  Hicks  found  themselves 
together  in  the  music-room,  deserted  now  by 
the  musicians.  There  was  but  one  other  couple 
present. 

"Play  something,  Miss  Maud,"  the  mascu 
line  member  of  it  was  urging. 

"  I  can't ;  I  only  play  a  little  for  my  own 
amazement"  replied  his  companion,  and  they 
retired,  leaving  our  friends  alone. 

The  impending  disaster  and  his  altered  re 
lations  towards  her  —  though  known  as  yet 
only  to  himself — gave  Hicks  a  courage  to  de 
clare  himself,  which  he  had  never  before  pos 
sessed  in  the  same  degree.  Once  more,  without 
in  the  slightest  acquainting  her  with  his  pecul 
iar  knowledge  of  her  affairs,  he  brought  about 
an  explanation  with  Miss  Calderon,  and  prayed 
her  to  be  his  wife. 

"  I  have  never  half  dared  to  talk  to  you 
about  it  before,"  he  said,  "I  was  so  troubled 


MISS  CALDERON'S  GERMAN.  345 

about  my  affairs.  They  are  in  better  shape 
now,  though  by  no  means  brilliant.  It  was 
always,  to  me,  a  good  deal  like  looking  in  at 
the  window  of  a  candy  shop,  without  the  abil 
ity  to  buy.  That  is  the  way  the  children  are 
tantalized." 

She  smiled  at  the  complimentary  notion  of 
her  being  as  attractive  as  that. 

"  It  seems  to  me  that  I  ought  somehow  to 
have  been  more  forcible  and  pushing.  I  ought 
to  have  carried  you  by  storm.  They  say  women 
like  that." 

"  Well,  if  that  is  n't  the  most  extraordinary 
—  well,  I  can  tell  you,  sir,  that  they  don't,  and 
you  would  n't !  "  she  protested,  energetically. 

Then  she  half  closed  her  eyes,  meditating 
with  interest,  perhaps,  upon  what  his  process  of 
carrying  her  by  storm  might  have  been. 

At  this  point  a  loud  voice  interrupted,  and 
old  Mr.  Bolton  came  into  the  room  in  a  search 
ing  way,  dangling,  by  its  rosette,  the  little 
anchor  his  daughter  had  left  in  his  lap  with 
her  other  favors,  and  said,  — 

"  I  am  looking  for  the  young  man  who  had 
the  head  on  his  shoulders  to  get  up  this  idea. 
Ah,  here  you  are,"  to  Hicks.  "  Now,  then,  let 
us  talk  it  over." 

"  One  moment,"  returned  Hicks,  petulantly, 
wishing  this  meddlesome  intruder  at  the  bottom 


346  MISS  CALDERON'S   GERMAN. 

of  the  Red  Sea.  Then,  to  his  sweetheart,  in  a 
low,  caressing  tone,  "  Do  not  answer  now.  Only 
think  of  what  I  have  said.  Think  of  it  if  — 
if  any  misfortune  should  soon  —  should  ever 
—  befall  you."  Upon  which  he  gave  his  at 
tention  to  the  new  demand  upon  it. 

"  It  seems  to  me  that  you  have  a  very  good 
thing  here,  young  man,  —  a  very  good  thing, 
indeed." 

"  Quite  likely,"  responded  Hicks,  dryly. 

"  It  may  be  so  good  a  thing  that  it  would 
pay  the  right  parties  to  take  it  up  and  go  into 
it,  if  you  wanted  to  make  the  right  arrange 
ments.  It  is  something  in  my  line,  you  see. 
I  'm  a  kind  of  sea-faring  man,  as  you  might  say. 
I  Ve  built  a  great  many  vessels  in  my  time, 
and  sailed  in  'em,  too.  I  know  the  value  of  a 
thing  of  this  kind  the  minute  I  set  eyes  on  it." 

It  may  well  be  supposed  that  the  apathy  of 
the  inventor  vanished  at  short  notice  upon  this 
preamble.  An  appointment  was  made  for  the 
the  next  day.  An  interview  was  held  at  Bol- 
ton's  house,  after  which  Bolton  was  to  take  a 
week  for  careful  consideration  of  the  patent 
and  submit  a  proposition. 

During  the  week  in  question  Hicks  was  la 
boriously  occupied  with  the  affairs  of  the  bank 
rupt  .Calderon,  and  hardly  appeared  to  give  his 
patent  a  thought.  At  the  end  of  it  he  saw 


MISS   CALDE  RON'S   GERMAN.  347 

Bolton  again,  and  hurried  from  Bolton's  pres 
ence  straight  to  that  of  Louisa  Calderon.  His 
demeanor  was  elated  and  joyous. 

"  I  have  come  to  announce  to  you  a  great 
piece  of  good  luck,"  he  said.  "  My  anchor  has 
met  with  a  wonderful  success.  Mr.  Bolton  is 
tired  of  being  a  retired  capitalist,  sighs  to  em 
bark  again  in  some  active  enterprise,  and  finds 
it  adapted  to  his  purpose.  He  buys  an  inter 
est  in  it,  and  is  willing  to  put  up  the  money  to 
go  into  the  manufacture  of  it  on  a  large  scale. 
There  is  no  telling  what  we  shall  make  from 
the  very  start.  When  you  consider  the  num 
ber  of  ships  there  are,  and  that  it  will  be  in 
dispensable  to  every  one  of  them,  any  moderate 
estimate  seems  paltry." 

All  this  was  very  pleasant  for  him,  no  doubt, 
but  Miss  Calderon  could  hardly  be  expected  to 
indulge  exaggerated  enthusiasm  over  the  suc 
cess  of  others,  with  her  own  affairs  in  such  de 
plorable  condition.  Was  it  kind,  was  it  delicate 
in  him  to  flaunt  it  thus  before  her  at  a  time 
like  this  ?  The  first  shock  of  the  bankruptcy, 
with  its  shattering  of  ideals  and  its  revelations 
of  falsehood  and  ruin,  was  over,  and  she  was 
looking  into  the  future  with  a  certain  calmness, 
but  still  overcome  with  a  deep  despondency  even 
more  wearing  than  the  earlier  tears  of  despair. 
She  endeavored  to  muster,  nevertheless,  such 


348  MISS   CALDE  RON'S  GERMAN. 

expressions   of    felicitation    as    politeness   de 
manded. 

"  Now,"  said  he,  cutting  abruptly  into  the 
midst  of  these  half-hearted  words,  "  I  am  not 
accustomed  to  brag;  you  must  know  why  I 
have  laid  these  matters  before  you  ?  I  have 
come  for  my  answer.  What  is  it  to  be  ?" 

He  had  begun  with  a  zealous  boldness,  but 
somehow,  with  the  last  sentence,  lapsed  into 
his  former  diffidence  of  tone  and  manner. 

Pretty  Miss  Calderon  was  startled.  She  had 
made  up  her  mind  that  after  all  that  had  hap 
pened  in  the  interval,  there  was  an  end  of  the 
subject  as  a  matter  of  course.  He  would  not 
recur  to  it  and  he  would  not  come  back.  But 
he  had  come  back.  Well  then,  it  was  only  in 
pursuance  of  some  fancied  sense  of  duty  or 
magnanimity.  But  now,  again,  she  recollected 
that  he  had  spoken  at  the  time  in  a  mysterious 
way  of  some  misfortune,  something  that  might 
befall  her.  Could  it  have  been  that  he  knew 
of  what  was  to  happen,  and  his  offer  had  con 
templated  exactly  her  present  situation  ? 

She  would  accept  no  such  sacrifice,  —  for  sac 
rifice  it  would  be.  Were  there  not  plenty  of 
other  girls  —  with  fortunes,  too,  whereas  she 
had  nothing  —  who  would  be  only  too  glad  to 
marry  him  ?  Having  pursued  all  these  reflec 
tions,  she  replied  to  his  inquiry  and  expectant 


MISS  CALDEROWS  GERMAN.  349 

manner,  twisting  her  hands  the  while  with  an 
involuntary  nervousness,  in  her  lap,  — 

"  I  have  concluded  not  to  accept." 

"  You  have  not  so  concluded ;  I  will  not  hear 
of  it,"  protested  the  lover,  cheerily  affecting  to 
contradict  her,  but  in  reality  in  growing  af 
fright. 

"  Yes,  I  have"  she  insisted. 

"  Oh,  don't  say  so,  my  darling.  You  break 
my  heart ! "  he  appealed,  now  in  a  far  different 
tone. 

"  Yes,  you  think,"  she  began,  half  inaudibly, 
but  with  a  vestige  of  her  old  manner  of  will 
fulness  and  defiance,  "  that  just  because  I  have 
lost  my  money  "  — 

"  No,  I  do  not  think  anything  of  the  kind. 
You  are  as  capable  of  refusing  me  as  ever.  I 
know  you  would  like  to  for  that  very  reason. 
But  it  shall  not  be  put  upon  that  ground.  You 
are  as  rich  as  anybody.  If  you  give  Germans, 
and  introduce  people's  patents,  and  make  their 
fortunes,  I  suppose  you  are  entitled  to  a  part  of 
the  proceeds.  Anybody  else  would  take  the 
whole." 

"  But  your  fascinating  girls  at  home,  —  whose 
influence  was  so  irresistible  ?  "  she  objected, 
retreating  to  a  last  feeble  position. 

"  Nonsense  !  there  is  not  one  of  them  worth 
mentioning  in  the  same  century  with  you." 


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Return  to  desk  from  which  borrowed. 
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JUN  3  0  1953 
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